I know I can do that, but they won't show in a list as if the game was installed, so they can't be checked for updates at the click of a button. They will only show in the Downloads tab, along with a mess of everything else, including extensions. EDIT: I just made a couple folders for both games where I would normally install them, including the Data folders, and dropped in a fake executable. Vortex gave several errors when I added both games, things like missing .ini files in My Games, and a missing .bsa in Skyrim's case, so I clicked the X's on them all, and restarted Vortex. The error messages are gone, and my mods are now showing and can be checked for updates like I wanted. A bit sloppy perhaps but it works. I'm gonna mark this solved and hope I haven't wasted anyone's time. Thanks. EDIT2: Turns out Vortex only checks installed mods for updates, so what I wanted can't be done. I discovered this when checking for updates for Cyberpunk mods, and then manually checking and finding updates. So back to square one.