Can I have both Opus 11 and 12beta installed on the same OS

Did a search in this forum, and also via google, but no joy. I'm wondering if it is possible for me to install the new 12 beta alongside the current V11 Opus? I do not want to give up my V11 Opus for daily use, but I would like to test the waters of V12b, if possible?? Any ideas? Thanks!

Well, i don't think it's possible. I've never read of such a case here in the forum, at least.

You can only have one version installed.

Well, that's that then... Maybe down the road I'll give 12 a try. Thanks!

12 seems quite stable if that's what you're worried about.

Yes, jon, that's exactly my concern. It was stressed in the release notes that anyone installing and using V12b should be aware that there WILL be bugs & problems, and I don't really want to risk any unwanted side-effects to my system drive due to an unknown bug in 12. But, on the bright side, I'm working on a way that I think I'll be able to install both versions to my OS drive. If I'm successful, I'll make a post on how I did it. Thanks!

I'm not sure what you are planning, but the best thing is to simply make a backup of your Opus 11 config and then install Opus 12.

If you need to, you can uninstall 12, reinstall 11 and restore your config backup. It's all quick and straightforward.

Trying to find a way to install both at once is more likely to cause problems, not avoid them.

I completely understand what you are saying, leo. I did, indeed, make a backup of 11, in fact, it's a monthly thing that I always do, just for posterity sake. I did find a way to have both versions installed on my system, and it works very well, so far. What I did was to rename the GPSoftware directories in all 5 locations, to GPSoftware11. Those locations were..

C:\Program Files\GPSoftware

C:\ProgramData\GPSoftware

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\GPSoftware

C:\Users\Oblia\AppData\Local\GPSoftware

C:\Users\Oblia\AppData\Roaming\GPSoftware

I then completely shut down 11, and installed 12b, imported the saved settings backup, and voila. Worked like a charm! Now I can use 12b for as long as I like, and when I want to go back to 11, I just run a small script to name the above 5 directories to ........12b, and change the ........11 named directories back to just plain GPSoftware. Simple solution, for me.
This will prevent me from having to install, uninstall, reinstall, etc.....

I'm not sure what problems I will have created using this method... leo said that 12b is seeming to be very stable, and if that's the case for me, then I'll do a proper uninstall of 11, and proper install of 12b.

No, no, do not do that. There is also data in the registry that can vary by version. Install one version or the other properly. If you mess around with the installation folders like that you will probably break something, and then we'll both waste our time trying to investigate something that was caused by that instead of a real bug.

Well, I did backup the registry before mucking about with the directory names and such, because I figured if anything could go wrong, it probably would go wrong.. I have to tell you, however, that so far, I've been able to switch back and forth between 11 and 12 without any problems... Out of respect for you, and for the outstanding program you have spent so much time and effort in developing, I will defer to your wishes. I will put all directories back to the way they were, import the registry back to the way it was, then do a proper uninstall of 11 and install of 12. I more wanted to try the dual installation to satisfy myself that it could be done, and I'm satisfied. So, now that I'm over it, I'll do as you advocate, and install 12 the correct way. I appreciate your time, leo!

Backing up the whole registry is what you did? Basically a good idea, but restoring the registry in full is something you do in emergency situations, the registry is in constant change, windows and other tools write to it all the time. Whenever you restore it, you risk shooting yourself in the foot big time as well, so as Leo said, no no, do not do that (unless really required because of a messed up disk/system). o)

In theory you could backup all the registry settings DO adds, but you can hardly track all of them down, especially dll registrations are hard to add/remove separatly, so forget it.

A better approach is something that "sandboxes" an application. Never used one myself, but these sandbox tools blend in and duplicate system components like the registry, which then appear fresh and separate to the actual sandboxed application. It's like a virtual machine for single applications. Such a setup should work in conjunction with DO and different versions and is what I would try if I ever felt the need - still not recommended I guess. o)

I have done full registry backups and restores so many times, I have lost count. I have a dedicated program for just that purpose, and it never fails me. No risk, no mess-ups EVER. So, I don't know where you got your information from, but for me, my experience says that it is no problem at all in restoring a complete registry. With that being said, I agree with you, and know full well, that the OS and programs alter the registry hives almost all the time, everything from file locations, to program states. However, if you have a capable registry program that monitors those changes and does real-time updates to your backup, then there's no worry.
But I digress... really no need for the registry backup, because as I said, I switched back and forth between 11 and 12 without any ill effects to either my OS, or Opus in general. I would have kept that setup, except for the fact that leo strongly urged me not to. I'm sure he has his reasons, and probably the most convincing one is so that we can all report on the findings of the beta versions coming from a 'standard install' of Opus. I'm a team player, so I gladly installed 12 the correct way. Other than that, I would have left it the same, and I dare say, there would have been no problem... Your mileage may vary, depending on how you have your OS setup, and what programs you have to insure the stability of your OS.

Running a different in a virtual machine is a lot easier and eliminates all registry risk.

Regards, AB

Make that "running a different version"....

I don't think messing with VMs, additional software/os licenses and hardware virtualization in general makes things more easy. o) Virtualizing a full computer with OS is also much more resource and maintenance intensive than virtualizing a single application. If the VM would at least allow to run box-less, so the application in question feels like it's part of the hosting environment, then maybe yes, but I've never seen that on Windows.

Sandboxie is the app-virtualization tool I was thinking of. It is only some few megabytes to install, it is not free anymore, but maybe it's still an option for some and maybe there are alternatives to that as well, did not research.

I think the idea to have multiple versions in parallel is quite obvious, I was thinking the same and especially in the beginning with v12, I would have switched back to v11 if that would have been possible without de/installing multiple times. The renamer behaved really bad in specific situations and I had graphical issues and messed up font sizes etc.. Escaping to previous versions does not help report issues of course, so the brave DO user sticks to what is in front and tries to make the best out of it. o)

I would install one version as portable App using the dongle option. You'll have to close dopus.exe and dopusrt.exe to run the portable version:dopusrt /dblclk=off Close PROGRAMNow you can run the portable DOPUS.exe.
With a small script you could automate this to switch versions by a single button click.

I might do that for v13 and up! o)

You're frightended DO 12 could have bug which could make your sys unusable, but do risky full-registry-restores?! Funny.

Re the portable app version: You still need the program installed normally to create and update the USB copy, and normal installs have more functionality since some of it requires registry changes that aren't suitable for a portable version.

The portable version's best if you need it to be portable, but not best if you don't need it to be portable.

It's normally best to just do things normally. It's almost certainly less time and effort.

This isn't something like Visual Studio that takes 15 minutes to install. It takes less than a minute to install the old Opus version, reboot, and restore a config backup in the rare case where you find something that bad with a beta that you need to go back. We have all spent more time than that musing about alternatives in this thread, so I think we're already at a net loss. :slight_smile: