Running Multiple Clients Possible?

hi i have 2 gw accounts since my brother quit , and we only have 1 computer =( is there any way to go on both accounts at one time?

Set up two computers right next to each other and play...

You can't run two clients and the same time because data confliction will occur...computers aren't that advanced...yet...

Before this game I was playing SWG and I was able to run two instances of that from the same files at the same time. (We're talking a 4GB Game too with the recommended ram being 1GB to play just *1* instance)

There was a config change that let two games run at once.



Have you tried setting up a second install in a different directoy by chance?

yeah i have but it still trys to run from C:/program files/guildwars
instead of the 2nd install

In the shortcut for the first one right click and hit properties. Where it says "Start In" put C:/program files/guildwars For your second one lets assume you have it located at C:/program files/guildwars2 edit the shortcut for that (as above) one to say C:/program files/guildwars2 where it ays "Start In"

Try that and see if it works.

*edit* nvm, just tried that. Looks like it's a registry setting it's pulling from. Let me see if I can find something in the registry to change

thanks

Without 3rd party intervention, I don't think so. I'll tell ya what I tried, and what it looks like the program is doing to make sure only one client is active.

First, checking the registry, the important key is [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ArenaNet\Guild Wars], where "Path"="X:\\Program Files\\Guild Wars\\Gw.exe".

The first thing the GW client does when excecuted is check that registry key to determine where it is installed. If you run it from any other location, it gives you the options to run from the current location (but it uses the .dat file from the location in the registry) relocate the installation, or uninstall. So, after copying GW.exe to another folder, I modified the path to point to the new folder (GW2 in this case) and ran the file. Guild Wars opened correctly, and began to download the .dat infomation for the rest of the game.

Going back to run the original client, however, now brings up the run from current (this now being the already running new client's dat file, which we don't want) uninstall, relocate window, as the registry points to my new folder. So, while the new client was running, I modified the registry key again, this time pointing it to the original install location.

The client determines that it is in the right directory, but then detects itself already running, and simply switches focus to the copy of Guild Wars.

I then modified the registry in order to make sure that WinXP was setup to run each copy of an application in its own memory space (and I'm not going into detaiil on that, just google search it if you want to know how). No change occured.

Basically, in order to even start two clients (this assumes there will be no issues with the two connections to the ArenaNet servers from one computer), you have to be able to sandbox (a.k.a. hide in a completely seperate and non-accessable by other programs) at least one of the clients. And you have to edit the registry in between starting client one and two.

I both don't currently have the necessary software to attempt that, and think that it may be possible that one would start getting into a grey TOS violation area that I'm not going work any farther on that angle anyway. This is not to say that it is impossible, just impractical.

I know that there is no problem running 2 clients from the same IP address as I have had it running from a laptop and my PC on 2 accounts before. Keep us posted if anyone finds out how to do it as I wouldn't mind running my 2 accounts from one PC

Thread necromancy, and on a topic that has already been solved

2x GW Clients - HowTo (Tutorial)

Well, this may be a topic that already was covered in another thread, but I wouldn't consider it to be a solved matter. The procedure described in the referred to thread is very complicated, can not or should not be attempted by most GW players, and needs to be redone each and every GW update, which apparently happens often.

Basically, the Windows operating system is not really multitasking as, for example, Linux or Unix. It is marketted at being so, but there are simply too many libraries and resources that are shared and too many programs, libraries and facilities that do not create new instances of themselves when being run from different programs. This means one task gets blocked while another task is using some resource. At any rate, under Windows, unless Anet specifically programmed GW to allow the possibility for two instances to run on one computer, its going to be one hell of a task to make it do it yourself. The referred to thread does mention how to do it, but it is a complicated procedure, and any time you start mucking around manually with your Windows registry you risk needing to reinstall the whole works again from the start.

Better off getting another computer

I prefer Windows account switching because I'm pretty positive that GW client binary modifying is against the rules we all have agreed before creating an account. There is a risk for permanent ban and they don't officially support it so using modified client might produce unexpected results.

The bad side about registry change and Windows account switching is that it is not real-time. Takes about 10 seconds to switch account. Good for transferring items or running own characters but quite useless in other tasks.

i have 2 accounts on 2 pcs sitting next to each other.

2 different emails 2 accounts.

account 1 is logged in on DSL and the other is logged in on dial up

it works fine without any registry changes

full install on each pc obviously

EDIT

here is another with some screens of it

http://guild-hall.net/forum/showthread.php?t=21218

that has worked alot for others from this forum.

was about to pull out the URL from favorites... beat me to it.

It's actually a very effective way of doing it (i use it) but the way it's written makes it sound FAR more complicated than it is. Once you've set up the two registry entries, its VERY easy; simply a case of double clicking two things when you want to sign in, instead of just the client.

Just read that post, I use the account switching technique which is actually identical to that one but without editing the client in anyway. FAR FAR easier and much less dangerous to the pc!

The link posted to the instance worked great.

Now I can transfer items from my account to my fiances