hippitywho

I believe you set that before download/ install in steam. Go to the steam dropdown in the upper left corner and choose settings->downloads->Steam library folders. You can add a new location with the + button and set the new location as the default using the three dot button on the right.

Have you seen this thread? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2664164755 The video under the section titled "Previous attempt at modding" gives good advice on a clean install which may help. EDIT to include direct link to video https://youtu.be/g67CnHD1wvY

I may be wrong, but I think there are some networks and/ or security settings that will disable .exe downloads and some workarounds that automatically rename such files to get around download restrictions.

I don't know if this will help, but I went to download the newest (testing version) file at GitHub and it is the .exe file. It is the second file down named vortex-setup-0.15.7.exe located here https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/Vortex/releases/tag/v0.15.7 . Good luck! I hope that helps. Also, I just also downloaded the one_click file on nexus and it gave me an exe file, as well. Perhaps you had a corrupt download? I am trying to reproduce what happend to you . If I can, I will let you know. Edit: The files for nexus mod manager (old mod manager) are named 0.65.2. Perhaps the computer is appending numbers to distinguish multiple downloads? In any case, If you are ok with using the auto-install location of C;/Program files, you should be able to go here: https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/1?tab=files . Scroll down to the first manual download button. It should have "One-click installer. This is the preferred way of installing Vortex" right above the manual download button. If you click on that button and choose run in the windows dialog box, it should install and run automatically.