Best approach to have multiple installations of Vivaldi
-
Hey there. I'm currently running the latest snapshot of Vivaldi (1.15.1146.5) as a per-user install under "C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\Application" as my main browser on a Windows 10 machine. I want to also install the current stable version.
I'm running into the following issues: if I try to do it as a per-user install too, the installer complains that there is already a newer version installed (which is indeed correct). If I try to install it standalone, the installation itself succeeds (under the suggested C:\Program Files (x86)\ in a folder I named "Vivaldi Stable"), but then it fails to launch - no error message, nothing relatable in Event Viewer either. My goal is two have two installations with separate profiles (because even if I manage to make them use the same profile, it may fail at some point). -
@killchain Your approach seems good so far but I'd suggest you install the stable version as standalone in an completely different folder like D:\Vivaldi instead of C:* just to make sure that those two version don't interfere with each other.
-
@zaibon Thanks for the suggestion, but that's a no-go for now: my C:\ is on an SSD and all my other partitions are on HDDs, so the idea for now is to install both on C:.
-
@killchain But you could give it a try as a test to see if this works If yes we'd know that the problem is caused by both versions somehow get mixed up.
-
@zaibon Okay, maybe before I try that, I should post this which I have in my registry (maybe I should've posted it in the beginning"):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1314710462-2325861430-2764462299-1001\Software\Vivaldi] "DestinationFolder"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Vivaldi Stable" "InstallType"=dword:00000002 "DefaultBrowser"=dword:00000000 "lang"="en-us" "UninstallString"="C:\\Users\\<my-username>\\AppData\\Local\\Vivaldi\\Application\\1.15.1146.5\\Installer\\setup.exe" "UninstallArguments"=" --uninstall --vivaldi" "name"="Vivaldi" "oopcrashes"=dword:00000001 "pv"="1.15.1146.5" "EnablePinToTaskbar"=dword:00000001 "InstallerResult"=dword:00000001 "InstallerError"=dword:00000004 "InstallerSuccessLaunchCmdLine"="\"C:\\Users\\<my-username>\\AppData\\Local\\Vivaldi\\Application\\vivaldi.exe\"" "usagestats"=dword:00000000 "_NumAccounts"="1" "_NumSignedIn"="1" "lastrun"="13152656269150308" "LastWasDefault"=hex(b):c7,11,a8,c2,14,c8,2e,00 "InstallerResultUIString"="This computer already has a more recent version of Vivaldi. If the software is not working, please uninstall Vivaldi and try again." "metricsid"="" "metricsid_installdate"="0" "metricsid_enableddate"="0" "InstallerProgress"=dword:00000064 "unique_user_id"="whatever" "UsageStatsInSample"=dword:00000001 "DowngradeVersion"="1.15.1146.5"
I noticed that there are settings relating to both the snapshot and the stable installation here, maybe that's what gets messed up.
-
@killchain Per user for one version and standalone for all other versions should be the normal way to do it. That's how I have it here. Make sure 3rd party security isn't blocking the Stable.
The problem you are having is not normal - but Windows 10 does irrational things related to software on user accounts for no good reason at all from time to time. I had something similar happen once about a year ago, and had to uninstall multiple versions of Vivaldi, clean the registry of "Vivaldi" mentions and start anew. Of course I saved my User Data folders.
If you have to do this, go ahead and install the Stable standalone first, and then install the Snapshot per user, after. Once that is done, both streams should update without hassle going forward.
-
Q: Best approach to have multiple installations of Vivaldi?
A: Linux.
-
@ayespy said in Best approach to have multiple installations of Vivaldi:
@killchain Per user for one version and standalone for all other versions should be the normal way to do it. That's how I have it here. Make sure 3rd party security isn't blocking the Stable.
The problem you are having is not normal - but Windows 10 does irrational things related to software on user accounts for no good reason at all from time to time. I had something similar happen once about a year ago, and had to uninstall multiple versions of Vivaldi, clean the registry of "Vivaldi" mentions and start anew. Of course I saved my User Data folders.
If you have to do this, go ahead and install the Stable standalone first, and then install the Snapshot per user, after. Once that is done, both streams should update without hassle going forward.
Turns out Windows treats Program Files and Program Files (x86) in a special way besides the permissions it asks for them - if I try to do a standalone install in one of these two, 1) I have to launch the installer as an administrator and 2) Vivaldi fails to launch from there after that. Last thing I tried is to uninstall the snapshot, then install stable in Program Files (x86) as a per-user install and then install the snapshot as standalone in a folder in the root of my C:\ and it worked - now the stable version has its user data in C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\Application and the snapshot - under C:\Vivaldi Snapshot\User Data. Maybe I'll try installing it somewhere under my user folder - for now I'm the only one using this computer, I just wanna see if it would work with multiple users.
@steffie said in Best approach to have multiple installations of Vivaldi:
Q: Best approach to have multiple installations of Vivaldi?
A: Linux.
Nope. That's a discussion for another day. I might try messing with Linux again some time, but for now, Windows is my main OS for multiple reasons (games, Adobe products, AutoHotkey, foobar2000 and so on).
-
Whether per-user or standalone, if you're not installing for all users, you should install to "C:\Users\yourusername\My Program Files". (Create the "My Program Files" folder.)
Example paths:
"C:\Users\yourusername\My Program Files\Vivaldi Snapshot" "C:\Users\yourusername\My Program Files\Vivaldi Stable Standalone"
The per-user installs should then share the profile in "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Vivaldi" and standalone installs each get their own profiles in their program files folder.
But, for me personally, I install (for all users) Vivaldi snapshot (64-bit) to "C:\Program Files\Vivaldi" and install all others as standalones in "C:\Users\myusername\My Program Files".
For Opera though, I install stable to "C:\Program Files\Opera", beta to "C:\Program Files\Opera Beta" and "C:\Program Files\Opera Developer", all for all users. This works out great because they each user their own profile folder in "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software": "Opera Stable", "Opera Beta" and "Opera Developer". For standalone builds though, I install to "C:\Users\myusername\My Program Files".
I choose "all user" installs to make sure everything's setup in the registry in HKLM.
-
@killchain Windows does treat those folder specially. Don't try to install there. Install in Users/USER/Appdata/Local/etc... Make your own additional folders as necessary.
I know that it automatically installs all users to one of the C:\Programs directories, but that is not what you are trying to do.
-
I have two versions installed. Both are standalone and installed in "%AppData%\Vivaldi Snapshot" and "%AppData%\Vivaldi Stable". Why does installer create folder "%AppData%\Vivaldi"? This folder contains folder User Data\Crashpad\reports and settings.dat file. Is that bug? Or Chromium standard behaviour?
-