iPhone Updating through iTunes. Can you keep old app versions?

[NotMyName]

I run iTunes v. 12.6.2.20 on a Windows 7 machine. The reason my iTunes version is so old is because A) i like to update apps through iTunes and not direct on my iPhone and B) when i do update the app, the file goes to the Recycle Bin, i pull it out, put it in an 'old apps' folder and if i don't like the update then i can revert back to the old app no problem.

This all came from years ago when i updated an app direct on my iPhone and the update was horrendous and i had no way of going back to the old version.

So then some time last year (i forget when) i updated iTunes and found that it seemed to be forcing you to update direct on the iPhone and no longer through iTunes the way that i do it.

My wife is looking at updating her iPhone 6S from 10.3.1 to 11.3.1 so we went to do that but iTunes said it needs to be the latest version to do this - which causes the problem i just mentioned regards the apps.


Is there a way to keep the old app file with the latest version of iTunes when you come to update an app or is this another genius idea of Apple's and you can actually no longer do it? If you can do it then how?

NOTE: phone is not jailbroken and we don't wish to jailbreak.

 

[Minorite]

You can try iTunes 12.6.3 if it's still supported, it should have iOS 11 drivers + AppStore. Technically not possible in iTunes 12.7 or later.

If you need only apps download you can try iMazing. It will allow you to download the current version available on the AppStore and downgrade later if needed. It may be a bit bulky but haven't heard of any other solution for now. Also, you won't need to pay for this option as it's not limited in their trial, so you can just test it.