Guide / Tutorial Guide to Running Multi-Account On 1 PC, Avoiding Re-validating each time (and using same game DIR)

[Lee Ti]

I was looking at this problem before I was told of this thread. Excellent work by the way but I (by luck) came up with a different solution to having two commander accounts under two different users. Just thought I'd share. Your solution has the benefit of having a single game directory but I think this solution should survive an update, but you will still need to download the update twice. [blah]

Start ED in your PC primary account as usual, once the game has started close the launcher.

From your primary PC account create a .bat file with a shortcut to your desktop.

.bat file contains the command:

runas /user:"<2nd windows PC user account name>" /savecred "C:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\EDLaunch.exe"

C:\Program Files (x86)\Frontier\EDLaunch\EDLaunch.exe is the location and executable of the generic ED launcher and it picks up from the user profile the different settings.

The first time you run this you will need to enter your 2nd account password.

Now if you want to play under your primary commander you start the game as usual. And if you want to play as your 2nd commander from your primary windows account just run the .bat file. You can also run both at the same time but I do take a performance hit.

The Steam question, if your using 1 steam account and 1 local PC account you don't need this you can just run either or both from your same windows account but remember to close the ED launcher after starting the first instance.

 

[Col Frost]

I have 2 accounts on the same pc.
I registered each with different email address's and simply log out and in with each account no problem.

 

[MottiKhan]

I tried this in order to use two CMDRs at the same time. Just a test, since I don't have time to play the game right now. It didn't work. Once ED is running, even closing the launcher and starting the other one doesn't start another game on the same computer.

However, I've found that running one from the Steam installation and another from the FD Store installation works. As before, when I was using a 64 bit copy along with a 32 bit copy, I need to change one of the games to the secondary monitor on borderless mode. But I can have two CMDRs running on the same machine at the same time once again. In this case, both games are running in 64 bit mode.

 

[Abil Midena]

Sooo....I already have one commander through the FD store. If I want a second commander, I can buy the game on steam and run it from there, right? If I go this route, I won't have to logout/login every time to swap commanders, right?

I don't want to play both at the same time. I DO want the controls to match.

Doesn't ED keep you journal files or something in one file, regardless? Won't that get things messed up?

 

[Non Grata]

Sooo....I already have one commander through the FD store. If I want a second commander, I can buy the game on steam and run it from there, right? If I go this route, I won't have to logout/login every time to swap commanders, right?

I don't want to play both at the same time. I DO want the controls to match.

Doesn't ED keep you journal files or something in one file, regardless? Won't that get things messed up?

I don't know about Steam, but alternatively you can set up a 2nd Frontier account with 2nd email address and buy the game with that. Then duplicate the launcher. Settings are shared. Not sure about journal - have a feeling it's the same files but content is prefixed with commander name, though ISTBC.

 

[Mordhar]

Sooo....I already have one commander through the FD store. If I want a second commander, I can buy the game on steam and run it from there, right? If I go this route, I won't have to logout/login every time to swap commanders, right?

I don't want to play both at the same time. I DO want the controls to match.

Doesn't ED keep you journal files or something in one file, regardless? Won't that get things messed up?

If you want to play 2 accounts on same PC one at a time there is no need for second game install.

First create FD store account (you need it to be able to play the game) with different e-mail.
Open Steam and select “product keys”, no need to install the game. Register them at your new FD account (if you have horizons you will have 2 keys. 3 keys for commander deluxe edition).

Now go to your existing Elite install and make a copy of EDLaunch.exe, rename it (to something like EDLaunch2.exe). Right-click and select “send to desktop-create shortcut”, name this shortcut as you wish.
When first using new shortcut you will need to go through usual machine verification process (verification code sent to e-mail). Select “remember me” and “remember password” options.
Now you can run both your accounts from 2 different shortcuts with a single install, but only one at a time. They share all settings (graphics and controls).

If you wish to use both account at the same time (multiboxing) the process of setting it up is very similar.

But instead of copying and renaming EDLaunch.exe inside install folder you need to make a copy of entire folder, no need to rename anything. Make shortcut to EDLaunch.exe from second install and use it to launch your second account.
In this case, everything will work exactly the same as with single install, but you will have an option to launch both accounts at the same time. To do so you need to run first launcher, start the game, then close the launcher and start second one.

Journal files are named Commander*******.cmdrHistory ,where ******* is a unique ID. If you have multiple accounts there will be multiple logs.

 

[Gizzard]

Hey guys, does anyone know if Multi-Crew has a negative experience modifier on Trade/exploration ranking? I know for combat it does, but cannot find anything on the other two.