Testing different version

If you have an existing installation of Double Commander and you want to test a different version then use one of these methods so that the different version doesn't overwrite your existing configuration. If you wish to test latest development builds, see Development versions.

1. Download and install/unpack the different version to some directory, let's say C:\newdc.
2. (optional) Copy your existing configuration to use with the new version, otherwise a default configuration will be created for the new version. For example choose C:\newdc\config as the configuration directory.
   If your existing installation is the portable version then you need to copy configuration files from the installation directory, otherwise from your user directory:
   %APPDATA%/doublecmd on Windows
   $HOME/.config/doublecmd on Linux
   Don't copy the directory itself, just the contents, so that there exists a file C:\newdc\config\doublecmd.xml.
3. Start DC with a command line parameter --config-dir=C:\newdc\config. If you intend to test many versions frequently it is convenient to add this parameter to the shortcut you use to start each version.

There exists also another possibility, using doublecmd.inf file. If the file exists in the settings subdirectory near the executable file then the settings subdirectory is used to store configuration. Therefore it is possible to set up different versions to store settings in their respective installation directories without the need to use --config-dir parameter. For example the portable version available for download is set up this way. However, the development versions (snapshots) don't have doublecmd.inf by default, so you would need to create this file yourself in the directory where you unpacked/installed the nightly build. Or copy your existing configuration to the new installation directory and create doublecmd.inf file.