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Problem

I'm looking for a way to open multiple instances of an application in Windows 8.1, such as FastStone Image Viewer, which does not seem to have an option to enable multiple instances.

My goal in this particular instance is to be able to use FastStone Image Viewer to open as many instances as I need. So if I need a side-by-side comparison of two images, I could just open two images and view them side-by-side. A lightweight application that's always-on could work, but I'd like to see what else is available.

Workarounds

The only way around this I personally know of is using Sandboxie to sandbox the app and have multiple instances of it open thinking it's running by itself.

Question

Are there any other mechanisms for enabling this without installing a wrapper app?

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Sawtaytoes
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  • How is this any different than the question(s) you linked as "similar"? Keep in mind, if a program is not intended to have multiple instances running (the programmer actually needs to intentionally disable that ability), then it probably won' twork without corruption due to unhandled shared files, memory addresses, and other resources. Example: instance1 writes "XYZ" to c:\temp\tempfile.txt, and then instance2 writes "ABC" to that file, now instance1 is confused by what it finds in the file and crashes, or corrupts your data, etc. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Feb 10 '14 at 18:23
  • Specifically, the application appears to open a couple of files ending with the telling name of `.db` in exclusive mode. I would guess it is not designed to be run with multiple instances, and the consequences of doing so could be quite unfavorable. – Mitch Feb 10 '14 at 18:56
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    Encountering the same issue, Google brought me here. I found a workaround, by making copies of the application executable (e.g. `FSViewer_2.exe`). Works for FastStone, and probably other applications as well. – Gras Double Dec 14 '18 at 00:53
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    I can't post a reply so here is my comment: On win8+ versions you can hold Shift key and click the fsviewer taskbar icon/button. That will launch a new window of the app. Pretty annoying, but it works for every program that does not perform a self duplicate verification (I just tried now). I hope this will help someone. – Costin Gușă Aug 30 '19 at 08:46

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