iTunes for Windows - Question about "iTunes Library.itl" and iTunes version

I recently reset Windows 10 on my laptop, which reformats the c:\ drive, thus removing all installed apps including iTunes. After the reset, I restored my Music library from a backup, which includes the iTunes folder.

I initially reinstalled iTunes for Windows from the Microsoft Store and was horrified to see that all my Playlists and user-defined Genres were missing. (I had defined about a hundred of them and catalogued thousands of songs into them.) Struggling to control the adrenaline surge that ensued, I immediately uninstalled the iTunes app I had downloaded from the Microsoft Store.

I then installed iTunes for Windows 64-bit from the Apple website (version 12.10.11.2). When I started the app, I got the following error message:

The file “iTunes Library.itl” cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes.

After clicking OK, the iTunes app closed.

I then tried restarting iTunes with the most recent version of "iTunes Library.itl" in the Music\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries" folder, and it worked like a charm - all my Playlists and Genres were once again visible and fully populated.

Everything is fine for now, but I am concerned about future updates to iTunes. My guess is that the version of iTunes that I downloaded from Microsoft was higher than the version I downloaded from Apple, and that the installation of the Microsoft iTunes installed a new version of "iTunes Library.itl" and copied the existing version to the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder, a step that was not reversed by the uninstall program. I don't know for sure if that's correct, but it does fit the facts.

This also raises some questions about iTunes backward compatibility and about possible differences between the versions of iTunes on the Apple site and in the Windows Store.

To recap, I'm concerned about three things:

• I configured my copy of iTunes artificially to get it to work. What will happen when I update or reinstall iTunes in the future?
• Will new versions of iTunes continue to support my user-defined playlists and genres?
• Are there differences between the iTunes app installed from the Apple site and the Microsoft Store?

Any insights, thoughts, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm not familiar with the iTunes installation process, so I could have gotten this all wrong.

Thanks,

Ralph P