Instances

Mod Organizer can manage multiple games at the same time. Each game is managed in what's called an instance. An instance contains:

• Mods
• Downloads
• Profiles
• Overwrite
• Settings
• Logs

There are two types of instances: global and portable.

Global instance

All global instances are stored in a common location, outside of Mod Organizer itself. Global instances are stored in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer\. Each instance lives in a separate folder. These folders cannot be moved from AppData, although most of their content can, such as the mods or downloads folders.

If there are multiple installations of Mod Organizer on the system, they will all find these instances.

Global instances allow for managing multiple games from a single Mod Organizer installation. The program can be installed somewhere like C:\Modding\MO2, well outside of game folders, and only one installation has to be updated when there is a new release of Mod Organizer.

Switching between global instances or creating a new instance is easy: the first button on the toolbar opens a window that lists all the available instances and there is a "Create new instance" button that starts the process of creating a new one.

Portable instance

An installation of Mod Organizer can have one portable instance. All the files and folders that would normally be in a global instance folder are stored directly inside Mod Organizer's installation folder instead.

The main advantage of a portable instance is that it is self-contained and easy to move somewhere else. However, managing multiple games requires multiple installations of Mod Organizer. This makes it more time consuming to update Mod Organizer and more difficult to switch between instances.

Anther disadvantage is that the portable instance files are mixed with the Mod Organizer installation files, which can lead user errors when manually messing with either. Keeping them separate and distinct would be safer.

Managing global instances

There are two ways to open the instance manager window:

• Selecting the File menu, then Manage Instances....
• Clicking the first button on the toolbar.

On the left is the list of all the instances, including the portable instance if there is one. Selecting an instance in the list shows more information on the right side.

Field	Description
Name	The name of the instance. For global instances, this is the name of their folder, which can be renamed by clicking the "Rename" button. The name must be unique and the active instance cannot be renamed. The portable instance cannot have a name and so it always shown as "Portable" and the "Rename" button is disabled.
Location	The folder where the instance is stored. For global instances, this is always in AppData. For a portable instance, this is always Mod Organizer's installation folder. The location cannot be changed.
Base folder	The "base directory" from the Paths tab in the Settings.
Game	The name of the game managed by this instance.
Game location	The folder where the game is installed.

There are two buttons below these fields:

• Open INI: Instances store their settings in an INI file. This file should not normally be edited by hand. Clicking this button will open the INI file in the system's default text editor.
• Delete instance...: Opens a window that allows for deleting the instance. The active instance cannot be deleted.

Clicking "Switch to this instance" at the bottom of the window will restart Mod Organizer with the selected instance. Items can also be double-clicked in the list.

Deleting an instance

To delete an instance, select it in the instance manager window and click Delete instance.... This will open a window that lists the files and folders that are related to this instance and can be deleted. If the location of the various folders have been customized, they will be shown in this list.

Some files or folders cannot be unchecked from the list because they must be deleted to remove them from Mod Organizer:

• For a global instance, the folder in AppData will always be deleted.
• For a portable instance, ModOrganizer.ini will always be deleted.

Other folders and files can be unchecked to keep them. This can be useful if multiple instances share the same folders.