S K Y R I M . I N S T A L L A T I O N . S W A P P E R

Current Version as of 7.8.12 is http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19034/

SIS IS COMPATIBLE with NMM, Steam and Wrye Bash. More info is below.

::::::WHAT IT DOES::::::

Let's you create up to ten individual skyrim installation "profiles" which can be swapped in and out easily, via GUI or hotkey. (Kinda like MOM/mTES4 do for Oblivion, but not copying all the vanilla game files, the addition of hotkeys to swap, pick your storage location, et al.)

A "profile" consists of any files in the skyrim game folder that are NOT a vanilla game or CK file, as well as the contents of the mydocs\my games\skyrim folder and the appdata\local\skyrim folder. (As of 0.8 there's a feature to include all the vanilla files in your profiles.) (0.8 added the option to back up wrye bash data, and 0.9 adds the option to back up NMM data. More info under USAGE below.)

::::::INSTALLATION::::::

To install, place the .EXE file in any safe folder (i.e. - one that isn't going to be part of your skyrim installation, for instance) and run it.

IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM A PRIOR RELEASE just delete the old .exe and replace it with the new one, then run the new file. It will update your .ini file to the most current version, and remove it from the folder where you have installed the .exe if it is found there. All you should have after running through the update is the .exe and vanillainstallfiles.dat in your installation folder.

>>>The new location for the ini (as well as all other resources EXCEPT the vanillainstallfiles.dat file) is ..\users\\local\SIS.<<<

If during initial setup you should be asked to locate your skyrim game folder, be aware that this would be the \SKRYIM folder, *not* the \SKYRIM\DATA folder. This is to be sure you capture everything unique to the installation, such as SKSE, Wrye, or other components.

::::::USAGE::::::

KNOWN ISSUE: When you select to launch Wrye Bash with the button, if it isn't installed, you will be prompted as to whether you want to run the installer instead. This feature will fail if you select to do it. Will be fixed.

Note that if you should abort the script during a swap, the utility will notice this the next time you start it up and will attempt to resume the operation. It should work, but but if doesn't, I can only suggest that you be more careful not to abort the script during a profile swap.

This utility checks that you already have Skyrim installed. The version you have installed does not have to be vanilla. You can define and manage up to 10 different installs, called profiles in this utility.

Upon first run, you will be guided through a few setup steps including setting your inactive profiles location. When complete, it'll display the main menu.

Note that occasionally when performing a swap or copy operation, the utility may appear to have frozen. Sometimes, this is due to a very large file being moved or copied, in which case the GUI title bar will show (Not Respnoding) until that file completes and then will go back to functional. I can't do anything about that one. The other time it appears frozen or unresponsive I've noticed is when swapping, occasionally (not always) it will say "preparing to move" and then that will go away and there might be an unusually long pause before it starts the next part of the process. This should be simply waited out. Don't panic. It will resume. If you wait ten minutes or something, go ahead and kill it and restart the app but otherwise, give it a moment if it seems stuck and 99% of the time it will unstick itself.

Each profile can be given a unique name, and hotkeys will soon be customizable. The defaults work correctly as of 0.9

Best practice would be to make sure you don't have any other utilities open when you swap or copy profiles - like wryebash, NMM, or any others. It's also wise to not have any folders that will be moved/copied open in windows explorer when swapping/copying. This is to prevent any stability issues in your OS and/or those applications.

Default Hotkeys: (Customization coming)

Main (Delete/Swap Profile) Menu - Ctrl-Shift-F1
Edit / Copy Menu - Ctrl-Shift-F2
Scraqer Menu - Ctrl-Shift-F3
Hotkeys Menu - Ctrl-Shift-F4 (Hotkey Changing not yet implemented)
Monitoring Menu - Ctrl-Shift-F5 (File Monitoring not yet implemented)
Settings Menu - Ctrl-Shift-F6
About Menu - Ctrl-Shift-F7
Abort Script - Ctrl-Shift-END
Reload Script Ctrl-Shift-DEL
Show Hotkeys - Ctrl-Shift-H (Currently Non-Functional)
Activate Alt Profile: Ctrl-Shift-# - Where # is number 1-0 on your main keyboard, with 0 being profile 10


::::::HOW IT DOES IT::::::

Copies/Swaps your LOCALAPPDATA\Skyrim folder (Plugins.txt is in here)
Copies/Swaps your MYDOCS\My Games\Skyrim folder (Save Games in here)
Copies/Swaps your GAME FOLDER (While not touching the vanilla game and CK files)

When you create a new profile, or swap a profile, SIS creates and deletes folders in the storage path. For each profile, 1-10, there will be a folder at YourStoragePath\ALT# where # is the # of the profile. Inside this folder are three folders, \GAME.ALT#, \DOCS.ALT#, AND \APPDATA.ALT#. This is where SIS will store the contents of each type of folder being managed by SIS. As of 0.9, all folders will have a file named SISBookMarkFile.DAT. Never delete this file.

Whenever the utility is commanded to copy or move an ACTIVE profile, it uses a special routine which reads the contents of vanillainstallfiles.dat into a string, and then checks the file about to be moved/copied against that string and if it's in the string, that means it's a vanilla file not to be moved or copied, and is thusly ignored. The .dat file can be manipulated manually using the pipe character as a delimiter and including all relative file paths. It's planned to be included in the GUI to add to the list of files being ignored but that won't be done through the vanillainstallfiles.dat file. This file shouldn't be edited if at all possible.

As of v0.8 Wrye Bash folder inclusion is added. If selected, the files will be stored in three folders within the storage folder for the profile: \BASHDAT.ALT# \BASHXML.ALT# and \BASHINST.ALT#. If you activate this feature you will be allowed to designate any unique storage locations you have set up through the bash.ini file to be the location monitored and swapped. You can specify each location individually. The default location for each of these folders is as follows:
\BASHDAT.ALT# - ..\Common\Skyrim Mods\Bash Mod Data
\BASHXML.ALT# - ..\Common\Skyrim Mods\Install Info
\BASHINST.ALT# - ..\Common\Skyrim Mods\Bash Installers\Bash

As of v0.9 Nexus Mod Manager inclusion is added. If selected, the files will be stored in the stored profile folder at ..\NMM.ALT#. If you activate this feature you can specify a unique folder for where NMM is keeping the install info. This is controlled in NMM through the Options menu.

::::::COMPATIBILITY::::::

SIS does not conflict with NMM, Steam or Wrye Bash. w00t! Note that you have to install Wrye separately for each profile. In order to do so, you'd need to activate the profile first, then you can install wrye to it. There are also settings on the settings tab for whether or not to include wrye data in the profiles.

WryeBash and Nexus Mod Manager compatibility is written into the code. See Usage notes above.

Total Conversion Mods: As of release 0.8 there's an option to include ALL the skyrim vanilla files in your installation. This should suffice until I can implement something more robust whereby the user will (in theory at this point) be able to specify which files, exactly, they want to include from the list of vanilla files as well as specifying additional files to be treated like a vanilla file.

>>>Some important notes about using Steam to install mods <<<

Steam Mod Subscriptions: Steam will automatically download and install any uninstalled mods you have subscribed to through steam when you launch the exe. So if you switch to a blank/vanilla profile and want to play with a vanilla profile, or test your mod with a vanilla profile, you will need to be sure you aren't actively subscribed to any mods through steam before running the steam game. If there's any way to prevent steam from automatically installing missing plugins to which you are subscribed, I don't know what it is. I *strongly* advise not handing over the installation of your mods to steam.

The problem lies with Steam for being unwilling to accommodate anything other than absolute authority over your install. [In other words, if you choose to use Steam's DLC installer and have problems maintaining control of your installation, this is no surprise to me.]


:::::UNINSTALLATION:::::

Just stop using it pretty much. If you want it totally removed from your HDD, you would need to remove the exe and dat file, plus delete the folder located at ..\users\\local\SIS which has the icons and .ini file in it, and of course, delete all the stored profiles from your storage folder if you have made any alternates. That's it. There are NO CHANGES TO THE REGISTRY so there's no need to do anything fancy to make it uninstall properly.

Thanks for your interest. We hope you enjoy using SIS!

SIS Development Thread: http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/1721-relz-sis-skyrim-installation-swapper/