Can I Have Both Vivaldi x32 and x64 Installed and Active at the Same Time?
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I grew up with DOS and I have never used MS's Windows default install in "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86). Instead I force install each program (when possible) into its own separate directory. Some snapshot versions back, I had both V x32 and x64 installed and I could activate either one. Now although I would like to occasionally play around with the x64 version, I can only have one active at a time. This means to use x64, I have to do a reinstall of that snapshot, which in turn deactivates x32. Then to get back to x32, I have to do another reinstall of x32. For example, I have Opera 12.17 en32, en64 and int64 all installed and can have each copy open and working at the same time. Is there any work around for Vivaldi so that I can use either or both at the same time?
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Is there any work around for Vivaldi so that I can use either or both at the same time?
I haven't tried it, but I don't see why not. Just use the Standalone installation option and install them into different folders.
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I had a 64- bit standalone and a 32- bit standard for a little while, and items from the standalone screwed up the regular install. They were not identical-numbered versions - don't know if the problems would have been seen if they were identical. Both worked, but neither seemed to work quite right.
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Thanks to both of y'all. I checked the help file on my V x32 and saw where sometime back I changed from Standalone to Allusers. So when I tried to do the separate install, it remained Allusers rather than Standalone. So every time I installed either x32 or x63 it just went into the same directory - last install then set whether it was 32 bit or 64 bit.
I backed up all of my User Default info, uninstalled Vivaldi, then did two reinstalls – both for Standalone. Copied all of the Default User info into the new install and upon opening, everything was as I had left it. Now whether this will cause problems remains to be seen.
I had to go looking for the Default directory as it no longer in the Users\Jimmy\AppData\Vivaldi. With Standalone, the user data is a directory within each separate Vivaldi directory called Profile.
I will let you know how it goes. Also as I forgot to do a Set System Restore before I started all this screwing around, hopefully not to much will go bad, if anything.
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Well, it looked real good in the planning, but in real life – -- bummer!
Even though everything set up nice, in reality, there was no I could get the x64 to just exist until called. I want - and need - the x32 to be my default browser - because of the inks from my email and its stability, even in the pre-release snapshots.
Although I uninstalled and reinstalled in different order, the x64 wound up being the default for links, etc. I would up having to just delete the directory.
Interestingly as an aside, as a Standalone installation, neither x32 nor x64 show up in Windows Programs and Features to uninstall. To get rid of the standalone versions, I just delete the directories from their place on the C:\ tree.
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Thanks. I am going to try this. I will let you know.
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tardigrada - Thanks for the suggestion, but alas, it didn't work.
The links bring up x64. Well, I am going to wait before I try again. I would imagine that after some more snapshots and tweaks, I will be able to do it.
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There was a thread here in the forum a while back that I'm not able to currently search out successfully, but in which a poster listed 7 Vivaldi files and 18 registry entries in which his stand-alone Vivaldi install path is described or contained. I've kept the text of the post, but unfortunately not its source/comment URL. Six of the files are various log files, and the seventh is the stp.viv file. The more problematic issue may be the registry entries… these appear to weave the installation into a variety of system elements (pointing devices, firewall rules, app paths, icons, etc), and could be the source of confusion for multiple instances of Vivaldi installations.
It may be that "autonomy" of installation is not currently up-to-snuff yet in Vivaldi, even for the stand-alone versions. In that case, one installation may perturb or alter another installation via the registry entries... which certainly sounds something like what you're running into.
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Good luck
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Two "all users" installs will certainly collide as they use the same profile no matter where installed. It could only be done with at least one standalone install, but I haven't tested that yet.
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IIRC, one limitation of standalone installations in Olde Opera was that they could not be selected as the system default browser, I don't know why that was the case, but it may be relevant here.
Another thought (based on my Vivaldi registry scan results in the thread Blackbird mentioned) is that there seems to be a set of registry keys that are changed with each installation (standard or standalone) so they always reflect the installation path of the most recent installation. Initially, I thought (most of) those keys were probably just used by the installer to keep track of the installation path to be re-used at the next installation.
However, when I tried manually changing the path in the "stp.viv" file to a new location for a new install, the new profile was nevertheless installed in the old path (presumably, AFAICT, from one of those registry keys). Based on that result, it seems plausible to me that when Vivaldi is set as the system default browser some/all of the same keys may be involved.
If that is the case, it might make sense to try installing your 64-bit standalone installation first, then install 32-bit Vivaldi as a standard installation and make it the default browser, so those keys will then point to your 32-bit installation. (If this works, I presume you would have to re-install a standard 32-bit version installation to your existing 32-bit installation folder after each future update of the 64-bit version to again re-write the registry keys to point to the 32-bit path.)
Another possible way around all that might be to just standard install your 32-bit version, and use 7-Zip to extract the 64-bit version from the installer and locate it wherever you want (using the relative path in the "stp.viv" file – see the same thread for details), so the 64-bit installer never writes to the registry.
These are just suggestions to try and see if they work. I haven't tried them yet, but they would be what I would try before posting this if I had time.
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