Install FG twice, once as demo, once as ultimate.

[villadelfia]

For reasons that aren't important to the issue at hand, I need to be able to install FG twice.

I found three ways of doing this:

1. Install it into a sandbox.
2. Install it on a virtual machine.
3. Run it under a different windows user.

All are kind of ridiculous for what should just be a second installation. Is there a clean way of doing this?

[Trenloe]

There isn't a clean way of doing this as FG stores specific settings (data directories, executable directory, etc.) in the Windows registry - hence why you can only have one installation/setup per Windows user, etc.. This is a fairly standard setup for Windows applications.

It is possible to modify the Windows registry to change the location settings for the FG app data and executable. So, you could do two FG installations and create shortcuts that run a Windows registry .reg file that is specific to the FG installation being used, before running the correct FG executable. It's a little complex, but can be done if you understand Windows registries and have to modify them with .reg files - and ensure the FG shortcut you run if for the correct instance you want to run.

Not clean, but do-able.

[villadelfia]

Ok, this is kind of ridiculous, but I have this set-up going now: I've written a program that does this for me.

Upon first launch it reads the "LicenseKey", "UserName", "Password", "UpdateCheck" and "PurchaseCheck" keys and saves them in a config file, then it copies the "InstallDir" to the same dir with " Demo" appended. Then it deletes the saved keys, appends " Demo" to the "InstallDir" and "DataDir" key, and runs the demo updater and allows it to update. Then it closes and reopens itself.

On further launches it shows a window with two buttons: Launch Demo or Launch Ultimate. If you click one of the buttons, the correct version will be launched by deleting/restoring the saved keys and changing the InstallDir and DataDir to match. It will also update the saved "UpdateCheck" and "PurchaseCheck" keys for the "last" run version.

[Trenloe]

FG is not designed to be installed multiple times, the registry settings specifically allow different Windows users to store their FG data in different locations with a single install - which is good multi-user design and something that the majority of single install, multi-user Windows applications follow.

Be aware that what I have mentioned is not supported in any way by Fantasy Grounds. You need to be aware of the changes you are making and the possibility of losing/corrupting data if you're not careful. Take regular offline backups (not using a cloud sync/active backup application) and be aware of what you're doing.

[Moon Wizard]

If all you want to do is run 2 instances of FG that connect to each other, you can just launch two instances of FG, then have one host and the other join with a host address of "localhost".

Regards,
JPG

[dudeslife]

Just in case any Mac users are looking to do this.

Use Wineskin Winery to install as many instances of FG as you like. None of the installs will affect the files of others.

[villadelfia]

Trenloe: The biggest issue here is that due to design issues in FG not even the intended way of using different windows logons works properly. This is because FG uses different executables for ultimate/free instead of unlocking features dependent on the presence of a license key.