Running multiple instances with different settings

I use a dual screen and dual account set-up. Well, the dual account thing is new, and I am having some issues with it.

I did a separate install for the second account, I know it isn't required, but I had my reason:

Primarily I want the first copy to have it's own settings and be run at full screen/high graphics on monitor 1. I want the second copy to have its own settings and be run in windowed mode/low graphics on monitor 2.

Normal wisdom would dictate that having two separate short cuts on the desktop referring to the two separate CoH.exe files in two separate install folders would achieve this result. But the first thing I noticed is that the default CoH shortcut references directly to the updater, and that it is impossible to start CoH from with the CoH.exe itself. No big deal, just re-targeted the desktop shortcuts to their respective updater.

Run copy 1, wait for the game to load, run copy 2. Adjust settings on copy 2, things look good. Close copy 1, and then open it again, and suddenly copy 1 has the settings of copy 2. Completely different file folders and yet this CoHupdater.exe program refuses to stop crossing over to the same folder, copy 2. I deleted a random file in copy 2's folder. Then loaded copy 1's shortcut(which still links to copy 1's folder and exe's) and the updater re-downloaded the missing file(which was present in copy 1's file folder), which illustrates the point that the updater was crossing over to the other file folder against logic.

Anyone have this problem or does everyone out there like to run clone copies?

Whats happening here is based on the fact that CoH stores all graphical/audio settings in the computer's Registry. There is not any sort of config or ini or prefs file stored in the actual CoH directories. Whats happening is that when you adjust the settings on Copy 2, it writes that info to the registry, which is then read in by Copy 1 when you re-launch it. How to get around this ? no idea.

Also, if you are wanting to skip the updater (I think thats what you are asking?), you would create a shortcut to CityofHeroes.exe, and modify the shortcut by adding "-project coh" to the Target box, so it looks like:

"C:\City of Heroes\CityOfHeroes.exe" -project coh

where C:\City of Heroes\ is wherever you have it installed, should be present in the Target box already. Also note the space between the " and the -, and the lack of quotes around the -project coh (common errors)

HMO

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I solved that problem by creating another account on my XP and started the second instance of CoX with the other accounts credentials by using runas.

1. Creata a new account to run the second instance on, no password set
2. Create a copy of your current shortcut to CoX.
3. Modify the shortcut by opening up it's properties and change the "Target" to the following: runas /user:mynewuser "C:\Program Files\CoH\CohUpdater.exe" where mynewuser is the account you created.
(Make sure the path is correct)
4. Happy times!

What Medic said...

Keep in mind that even if you use the shortcut to directly run the exe, it'll still read off the same registry. That's why it doesn't make any sense to have 2 copies of the game under any circumstances. The only way around this is to possibly run it from 2 separate windows profiles at the same time.

If you want to run one copy at lower settings, you can use a shortcut that has -maxinactivefps 1 at the end of it. Then, only the active screen will be using more resources, and if you need more action on screen 2, you simply switch to it.

After more experimenting with different file names and install paths the shared registry files started to seem more apparent. Thank you for the confirmation. The registry files would be the same regardless of which of my hard drives I installed it in. I have different versions of windows on each, but only run one of them. The registry file creation location would be dependent on the version of windows running, if I understand the situation right.

Still hopeless then. I am still open to advice, otherwise I may just have to develope a complex game starting sequence like: Start one copy in full screen, then select windowed mode(which only takes effect on restart of program) and then open the second one, which in theory should then start in windowed mode. I think that may get around the issue of changing from full to windowed requiring a restart.

Ah, got a few replies while writing my own. Thanks for the advice Joat, I will give that a try. I have never run multiple accounts on one computer at one time, but that seems like a viable solution.

Ah, being flooded here with good advice. Thank you so much guys. I will attempt JOAT's solution, and failing that Mateo's modified shortcut solution seems good as well.

Once again, thanks!

I created a new user, same name, mynewuser and modified the shortcut as you recommended. When I click the second shortcut I get a DOS popup asking for the user password, I didn't not set one and so I press enter, the DOS window closes and nothing happens.

To some extent you're fighting a losing battle here because CoX isn't designed to run multiple instances on the same machine, and NCSoft will tell you right away that they don't support such efforts.

I'm also interested in the meaning of "I didn't not set one," which means, as I understand it, "I set one."

Before I steeled on settings I could tolerate all the time for dual boxing I made two registry files.
One for max quality single client
and the other for min quality dual boxing.