Wouldn't it be easier to just use the Address Book to generate new receiving addresses? The main Bitcoin program uses %AppData%\Bitcoin to store the wallet. If you tried to make a new wallet, the previous one would either get overwritten or open up with the program.
But you can't send to your own addresses. Rotating coin that has been used in a transaction that can be liked to you should be nice for plausible deniability on other transactions in the chain if a wallet is compromised. Makes it more difficult to follow the cash flow and identify what addresses in the chain corresponds to the same actual person.
Also it might be good for running different versions. I thought you could use bitcoin.conf to put the wallet and data directory anywhere you like?
edit: the datadir flag i meant to say not .confThe staying anonymous part of the wiki talks about multiple installations (because you can't do anything to the sending address otherwise) but nothing about if they are meant to run simultaneously or not. Some programs don't do multiple instances well...
If you have a dormant wallet then nothing happens. The network doesn't know/care about the wallets. If someone sends BTC to an address, it just does it. The network doesn't know if coins are lost or missing, it's up to the people to make sure their wallets are safe and secure. Many people have a 'savings' wallet that they transfer their money to and then backup/secure.
Thanks, so it doesn't get outdated or easier to hijack because all of the transaction data is in the entire network...