Running 2 GW in 1 Computer

im thinking of buying another set of GW bcuz ineed the extra character slots. is it possible to run 2 GW to Run my new characters from here to there, and transfer items, and stuff to it w/o having to use 2 computers?

I haven't tried this because I don't have 2 GW accounts...

You might be able to do so if you have 2+ user accounts on your computer. What you need to do is run GW on the 1 user account and log into the 1 GW account, alt-tab out of GW and then use the windows "Switch User" feature to switch to your other comp user account.. load GW on that account and log into the 2nd GW account there...

Don't know if it would work, but it would allow you to run both accounts at the same time and thus let you transfer/trade between both GW accounts. I know this used to work in another online game I used to play.... at least until the game dev's got cluey about people doing this and coded it in so it couldn't work anymore. good thing too... don't know if the GW devs have prevented this or not.

Don't know if this is allowed to be posted here tho.. *looks around*.. so if this isn't allowed.. then just delete this post

The computer will still recognize that Guild Wars is already open, so you probably won't be able to run Guild Wars twice on the same machine.

Also, you would need a pretty good computer to even attempt that.

Heh, Esprit is correct. I just tried it and it came up telling me that it couldn't run because XX file/program was already in use.

Course a way around this might be to have 2 seperate copies of the game in 2 different directories. But then again, when you run the 2nd copy it might just look in the "installed" directory for the files.. or check memory and see that it's internal "files" are in use and thus not work as either.

Esprit - nah, if your just trying to trade items between characters and not run 2 clients constently.. you wouldn't need a super computer.. maybe just some patience as chances are things would be slowwwwwww as buggery if your computer was slow and/or lacked ram...

I have done it....ran 2 GW in same PC with different accounts. Heres How :


Say your default GW folder is C:\Guild Wars.
You need to have Two User Accounts in your Windows XP.

1)Make a Folder C:\Guild Wars2, and copy everything there.
2)Start GW from the original folder, and change it to a windowed mode.
3)Minimize it.
4)Open Regedit and Find the Guild Wars Key at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ArenaNet\Guild Wars
5)Find the "Path" key in the right pane. Double click that to Edit, and just change the path to the new folder you made.
Eg. Change it from C:\Guild Wars\gw.exe to C:\Guild Wars2\gw.exe
6)Close the Registry and "Switch User"
7)Login with the other account
8)Start GW from the second directory.
9)Thats All
10) Restore the Registry to the original path after the game session.

Note :
You'd need atleast a 2GHz Proc, 512MB Ram, and 1 GB Free Swap Space to do something more than trading. For instance, I ran one of my characters from Ascalon to Beacons with my lvl 20 Ranger on the other account.

This Thread might help.

thnx guys. im going to try Annarkii's idea. and if that doesnt work. i will try the suggestion in wabbits link. anyways ill keep this updated if it worked or not. again many thnx

Anarkii's idea will most assuredly work...though switching between user accounts on XP isn't the most time or system efficient way of doing things...it certainly solves your problem.

nice idea Anarkii

It is if you've got a two-monitor setup, which, most people don't =D

A two monitor setup isn't going to help much I don't think. He uses the "Switch User" feature built into XP which essentially hides one users desktop and all applications running on that account.

It seems though that you wouldn't actually need to utilize the "Switch User" functionality. If you are editing the registry to point to a different folder would it still detect a version of GW already running? I don't have two copies of the game, nor do I feel like having a second install to test this out on but it's a thought.

I mentioned that I had used and tested this. It works

If you have a special switch (i forget what they're technical name is) Then you can actively run two user desktops at once. Instead of formatting two monitors as one, it literally runs two desktops at once, one to each monitor. Although now that I think about it, it seems as if one would need a dual-core processor

I've only read a little bit about this and could be wrong, as it was a few months ago.

You dont need two monitors, or a dual-core. You can run two copies of the game simply by using the "switch user' function in Win XP

Yeah, we've established that, haha.
I was just mentioning that it would be cool to have two monitors with a GW client on each running from the same computer

Hmmm, cool. I'd asked about this on gwonline at some point and everyone told me it was impossible, including Arena Net official technical support. I'll have to try it.

Now I dont have to wait until my sister isnt home to use her comp to trade over items to my other account. This makes it sooooo much easier. My comp doesnt seem to have any problems doing it although I would like to know if I have the requirements to give myself a run Is there a way you can check?

there is a much later and better thread and method on this that allows running yourself.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=70999