Have multiple DW installations at the same time

[OneShot]

Now this was originally posted by Molon Labe. I'm posting a little revised version to actually fit the reality of Dangerous Waters.

Here are the instructions from Dangerous Waters on dual (or more) installs.

85

*STEP 1*

Install Dangerous Waters (install and patches and mods that you want)
Create a shortcut to your desktop. This should be renamed to indicate what version of the game this shortcut will be starting.
Go to "Start" then "Run" and type in "regedit" w/o the quotes.
Open the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" folder, then open "Software" folder, then open the "Sonalysts Combat Simulations" Folder. One sub folder will appear in the "Sonalysts Combat Simulations" folder. Highlight the "Dangerous Waters" folder (a bunch data will appear in the right hand window).
With the "Dangerous Waters" Folder Highlighted, go to the "Registry" Tab in the top menu and select "Export Registry File", give this a name of something like "1.03" or "Lw/Ami" or to indicate what version of this game it is. Now save this .reg file to your hardrive.

(For Windows XP, save this file anywhere convenient for you to access it)85

*STEP 2*

Put your Dangerous Waters CD into your CD-rom drive and right click on the drive and select "Explore"
Go to the "setup" folder and click on the "setup.exe." file to begin installing the second version of the game. Select "reinstall" and then either install this new game onto another Drive and/or rename the destination folder to something else. (Both games must have a different path way for this to work).
When you are finished installing the game, install whatever patches and mod that you want this version of the game to be. Create a desktop shortcut for this game as well and rename it to suit whatever this game will be.
We need to go back to "Regedit" and repeat the following steps.
Go to "Start" then "Run" and type in "regedit" w/o the quotes.
Open the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" folder, then open "Software" folder, then open the "Sonalysts Combat Simulations" Folder. One sub folder will appear in the "Sonalysts Combat Simulations" folder. Highlight the "Dangerous Waters" folder (a bunch data will appear in the right hand window).
With the "Dangerous Waters" Folder Highlighted, go to the "Registry" Tab in the top menu and select "Export Registry File", give this a name of something like "1.03" or "Lw/Ami" or to indicate what version of this game it is, it should be a different name from the .reg file created in step 1. Now save this .reg file to your hardrive.

(For Windows XP, save this file anywhere convenient for you to access it)85

Now you should have two versions of Dangerous Waters installed with two differently named .REG files and Two desktop shortcuts.

To play one version of the game, you need to click on its appropriate ".reg file" and answer "yes" to "Are you sure you want to add ..... to the registry"

Now click on the appropriate DW start desktop icon to play that version of the game.

To play the other version you would need to click on that versions ".reg file" and then click on that versions DW start desktop icon.


(In order to install more than 2 versions of DW on your PC, repeat step 2.)

[LuftWolf]

Note, for Window XP, you will have to go to the "File" tab rather than the "Registry" tab, and the command is simply "Export..." rather than "Export Registry File".

Thank you to Lane for bringing up these differences between what was posted and what is in Windows XP. :smile:

[Lane]

ok still a little confused I follow all the steps in the Registry Editor
I found the SCS folder it has one file ab defaut Reg_SZ?
then the DW folder has 9 files Reg_SZ Then there is another folder
called 1.0 folder which has 15 Reg_SZ?
Will make this post in Sub sim forum
Lane

[OneShot]

After you have reached the point where you see the "Sonalyst Combat Simulations" Folder, just go one level below to the "Dangerous Waters" Folder. Left Click that, then right click and select Export. Alternatively use "File"->"Export". Disregard whatever is listed on the right side. If you select the "Dangerous Waters" Folder and export that, everything in and below it will get exported as well.

[zma]

What would be the correct way to uninstall one of the multiple installations? I just found out that the uninstall shortcut in the start menu removes all of the installations. (Or at least it removed both of the two installations I had.)

Would it be as easy as deleting the installation folder and the corresponding registry values?

[OneShot]

Good question. The last time I uninstalled I didn't look to closely, so I don't know if I had the same problem as you. One alternative would be the one you mentioned, meaning the manual way. As far as the uninstall link goes, you have to keep in mind that those links are from the last installation you did and they are not changed. I guess you have used the path the game offers you for installing, just modified the last part "Dangerous Waters" a bit to create two different folders. Personally for years now I have a total separate Games folder in my root directory into which I install all my games (with their own Subfolders). Easier to keep track of the games mostly that way. Anyway, I think your problem was that the uninstaller not only deletes the Dangerous Waters but the "Sonalyst Combat Simulations" folder as well. If you have two totally different paths then my guess would be that you can selectively uninstall your games. And you have to use the Uninstall link in the game folder itself.

Cheers
OS

[zma]

I had the two installations on the same partition, but otherwise on completely separate paths. The uninstall shortcuts in the game folder and in the start menu group seem to be identical (I had two separate start menu entrys as well), so it shouldn't matter which one to use.

The uninstall shortcut points to RunDll32.exe, which takes as one of its arguments a subfolder of C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\ (or similar). The subfolder corresponds to an installed application. I don't know how InstallShield works in detail, but if multiple installations of DW (or any other app) do not create separate subfolders in the aforementioned folder, then one would expect problems when trying to selectively uninstall. But if that is the case, wouldn't it mean that only the most recent installation could be uninstalled by InstallShield? That is what I was trying to do, but instead both of the installations were removed. :hmmm:

[OneShot]

Well, in that case I simply don't know. Maybe someone else comes up with a reliable and replicable way of selectively uninstalling from multiple DW installations without killing the other installs.

Cheers
OS

[TLAM Strike]

If you have multi-installs you shouldn't need to uninstall just switch the regeistry to one of the install you are going to be using (to be safe) and delete the folder of the verson you want to get rid of.

[SKeeM]

works great for me:you_rock:

[Theta Sigma]

Is this still the only way? I thought I saw a thread on subsim (or elsewhere) mentioning another solution that didn't involve clicking a reg file every time. Also, I know from experience that some executables can be changed somehow to allow them to be run alongside each other simultaneously.

Like many, my desire is to have 2-3 separate installations with different mods applied.

[DirkDP]

Wouldn't it be simpler to copy the DW install folder somewhere else, rename it, move it back and then rename according to which mod you play. You only need to install once. And install the mods in the correct dir of course.

For my setup I have:
D:\DangerousWaters (original install and where registry keys point to)
D:\DW-LwAmi
D:\DW-RA

Now if I wanna play RA I rename DangerousWaters dir to DW-Stock and rename DW-RA to DangerousWaters and that's it.

DDP.

[OneShot]

Interesting tip ...

Using a batch file you could even automatize this process of renaming. And in regard to installing ... simply install once, copy the main folder to another (or more) and then name them accordingly. Execute the batch file once to "swap" the installations to apply the different mods, after that you are set. The drawback to this is the large footprint your installation(s) leave on the HDD.

Still, for those who have the space ... well worth to look at.