Running an app installed in the user's home directory of Xu 16.04

[ineuw]

Currently using Xubuntu 16.04 and installed an older version of Mozilla Thunderbird (v31.8) in the home directory but it doesn't work, while this was not a problem in Xubuntu 14.04. I don't know what changed in this Xu version and can someone please help me to resolve this issue?

The reason for installing an older version of Mozilla Thunderbird was because of changes to the address book display in the current versions (38+). The change was the merged display of all address books, which could easily cause the sending of an email to the wrong person. The reason for installing in the home directory was to prevent Xubuntu updating the software to the current version.

[vasa1]

What do you mean by "it doesn't work"?
I do something similar with Firefox (except that I keep it fully updated). It survived the upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04.

[ineuw]

by "it doesn't work", I mean that clicking on the executables (I know that there are more than one) nothing happens. The same goes for opening a terminal in the Thunderbird folder and typing "thunderbird". Obviously, edited all the menu shortcuts to point to the program folder and executables, but nothing happens. Also, 16.04 was a clean install and not an update. Something might have changed, perhaps the path? My knowledge of Linux is still very basic.