Can you have two installations of Flare on one PC?

[candeelh]

Hi all,

I have two clients, both of which have purchased the most recent version of Flare (2019 R2), though one client purchased MadPak and the other only Flare. Each client would like me to use their own license when working with their Flare projects, and I will be working on their projects simultaneously. So my question is, can you still run multiple versions of Flare on the same PC or has that ability been removed? I used to be able to do so many years back, but I'm afraid to attempt to do it now without first asking the question. Please note that I do have two partitions on my PC, though, the one is not large enough to install and run Flare and I cannot increase the partition size without messing up my other partition. I guess alternatively, I could install one of the Flare apps on my external hard drive, but I thought people had stated that it doesn't work well for authentication when installed on an external drive. Does anyone have any suggestions or know the answer to my question?

Thanks!
Candee H

[SteveS]

I'm not sure I can see an advantage in asking that a particular licence is used...

If you really must have 2 installations of the same release you will probably have to install one on a virtual machine. Unfortunately, that means you will need another copy of Windows to use as the virtual machine's operating system.

[NorthEast]

I've not tried this, but if you create a second user account on your PC, you can probably activate Flare using the different licence details.

However, I don't really see why you need to change licence, as it'll make no difference. Just use the MadPak licence.

[bunnycat]

I had Flare 2018 R2 and Flare 2019 running side by side on same computer, using the same license. No problems.

However, Flare 2019 R2 came along and acted like an upgrade to Flare 2019 (but left Flare 2018 R2 alone-- thank goodness!) - it put down its executables into 2019's directory (Program Files\Madcap Software\MadCap Flare 15\).

But your scenario of using a different license for one of the editions, I've no experience with, sorry.

CAT

[SteveS]

I had Flare 2018 R2 and Flare 2019 running side by side on same computer, using the same license. No problems.

However, Flare 2019 R2 came along and acted like an upgrade to Flare 2019 (but left Flare 2018 R2 alone-- thank goodness!) - it put down its executables into 2019's directory (Program Files\Madcap Software\MadCap Flare 15\).

But your scenario of using a different license for one of the editions, I've no experience with, sorry.

CAT

You've always been able to run different versions of Flare side by side, but only one version of any release, including updates.

[candeelh]

Thank you all so much for your input and suggestions!
I actually contacted MadCap regarding this issue, and it appears that it cannot be done. Though I think Steve came up with a great alternative - using a virtual drive. My actual resolution wound up being a bit easier: One of my clients stated that they were perfectly fine with me using their license key to perform the small updates that I might receive from my other client, so the problem has been resolved. Thanks again to all who replied to my question - I greatly appreciate your responses!

Candee