Skyrim Steam/Skyrim GOG - 2 instances managed by Vortex

[xbk123]

Is there a way to manage Skyrim SE from steam and Skyrim SE from GOG with Vortex at the same time? Profile managment is not perfect so I would like to have two Skyrim games modded differently.

[Pickysaurus]

So you can do this with a little-known Vortex trick. Basically it requires creating a separate instance of Vortex used for the other game.

 

Please note that two instances should not share a staging folder!

 

To set it up first create a desktop shortcut for Vortex.

 

Then right click the shortcut and open the "Properties" window.

 

Under target it will say something like "C:\Program Files\Black Tree Gaming Ltd\Vortex\Vortex.exe"

 

Add the following to the end of the shortcut target, making sure to swap in your Windows username

--user-data "C:\Users\{YOUR ACCOUNT NAME}\AppData\Roaming\Vortex GOG"

Now when you open Vortex via that shortcut it will not have any of the data from the other instance. This means you can install mods separately.

 

In the new instance, manage the GOG version.

 

 

If you open Vortex without using this Desktop shortcut it will be managing the Steam version.

 

 

Hope that made sense.

[xbk123]

Thanks.