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VLC: Portable launcher is preventing multiple instances

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snovotill
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VLC: Portable launcher is preventing multiple instances

Hi, I have VLC 2.15 installed alongside VLC-Portable 2.15 but the portable version refuses to launch if VLC is already running. Can the portable launcher be convinced to launch VLC-Portable? If not then can I fake it out some way? I need to have two differently configured instances of VLC on my PC. This used to work for me not that long ago.
thanks

John T. Haller
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Local File Usage

VLC, even when used with the command line switches used in the portable version, hard codes some files to be stored in $APPDATA\vlc and $APPDATA\dvdcss. The portable version will move its files into place while running and move them off when done, backing up and restoring the local files in the process. Thus, you can't have two fully independent versions running.

For your specific use case, just install a second local copy and launch both using the --vlm-conf "p:\ath\to\settings" --config "p:\ath\to\settings" switches but with your own path. Hopefully they won't complain about sharing the files in the two directories I mentioned above.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

snovotill
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Launch second instance in VLC-Portable

Thank you John, especially for the second tip which I'm about to try Smile
For the sake of completeness, I see there's a VLCPortable.ini which looks like it might be able to override the launcher's refusal to launch a second instance. Or perhaps some other ini file? I always appreciate when an application has the flexibility to give the user a choice about things like that. best regards.

John T. Haller
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There Is Not

There is no way to override it for VLC. Overriding it would mean breaking portability as all instances of VLC share specific files in a hard coded location which will cause problems.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

snovotill
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Last seen: 9 years 5 months ago
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Final solution

In the end I did the following as per your advice. It gives me a right-click menu to launch VLC with alternate settings, against a folder or file. This eliminates my previous dependence upon VLC-Portable for this functionality. Thanks.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\PlayWithVLC2]
@="Play with VLC config 2"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\PlayWithVLC2\command]
;"C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --config %appdata%\vlc\vlcrc2 --rate 0.67 --started-from-file --no-playlist-enqueue "%1"
@=hex(2):22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,20,\
00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,20,00,28,00,78,00,38,00,36,00,29,00,5c,00,\
56,00,69,00,64,00,65,00,6f,00,4c,00,41,00,4e,00,5c,00,56,00,4c,00,43,00,5c,\
00,76,00,6c,00,63,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,22,00,20,00,2d,00,2d,00,63,00,\
6f,00,6e,00,66,00,69,00,67,00,20,00,25,00,61,00,70,00,70,00,64,00,61,00,74,\
00,61,00,25,00,5c,00,76,00,6c,00,63,00,5c,00,76,00,6c,00,63,00,72,00,63,00,\
32,00,20,00,2d,00,2d,00,72,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,20,00,30,00,2e,00,36,00,37,\
00,20,00,2d,00,2d,00,73,00,74,00,61,00,72,00,74,00,65,00,64,00,2d,00,66,00,\
72,00,6f,00,6d,00,2d,00,66,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,20,00,2d,00,2d,00,6e,00,6f,\
00,2d,00,70,00,6c,00,61,00,79,00,6c,00,69,00,73,00,74,00,2d,00,65,00,6e,00,\
71,00,75,00,65,00,75,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\PlayWithVLC2]
@="Play with VLC config 2"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\PlayWithVLC2\command]
;"C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --config %appdata%\vlc\vlcrc2 --rate 0.67 --started-from-file --no-playlist-enqueue "%1"
@=hex(2):22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,20,\
00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,20,00,28,00,78,00,38,00,36,00,29,00,5c,00,\
56,00,69,00,64,00,65,00,6f,00,4c,00,41,00,4e,00,5c,00,56,00,4c,00,43,00,5c,\
00,76,00,6c,00,63,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,22,00,20,00,2d,00,2d,00,63,00,\
6f,00,6e,00,66,00,69,00,67,00,20,00,25,00,61,00,70,00,70,00,64,00,61,00,74,\
00,61,00,25,00,5c,00,76,00,6c,00,63,00,5c,00,76,00,6c,00,63,00,72,00,63,00,\
32,00,20,00,2d,00,2d,00,72,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,20,00,30,00,2e,00,36,00,37,\
00,20,00,2d,00,2d,00,73,00,74,00,61,00,72,00,74,00,65,00,64,00,2d,00,66,00,\
72,00,6f,00,6d,00,2d,00,66,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,20,00,2d,00,2d,00,6e,00,6f,\
00,2d,00,70,00,6c,00,61,00,79,00,6c,00,69,00,73,00,74,00,2d,00,65,00,6e,00,\
71,00,75,00,65,00,75,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,00,00

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