Sorry to bud in, but i have a PC where i have both 1.8.19 & the latest 2.3.6 (i was on 2.3.4 but updating is happening as i am typing) but the 'core' installations are shared between versions. Is there something different other than the compilation process (done by the core and included files) between the older and newer IDE versions (because i somehow doubt that)
I would migrate to the newer IDE if the network ports for the ESP8266 would als obe recognized instead of just the ESP32 network ports)
btw still don't think this in the proper subsection of the forum.