![Manager Manager](/uploads/1/2/4/7/124746157/926615706.jpg)
Gopher is using the new Nexus Mod Manager which is called. It is still in Alpha state but works well with Skyrim though. Other games are slowly being introduced to work with it as well. It was first stabilized for Skyrim and now works so well with SkyrimSE that Gopher is using it for his Let's Play. I love Vortex. I have found ways to do everything I need with Vortex and it is a lot more stable and handles large files better than NMM. I used to use Mod Organizer and that is the one Gopher recommended several months back, but NMM was still the best manager for the novice and still is for all other games, such as Fallout 4.
Boards > Community Central > The Vestibule > Best Skyrim mods manager/mods? > Best Skyrim mods manager/mods? Discussion in 'The Vestibule' started by DCMann2, Aug 5, 2012. Best Mod Manager and Load Order Tool to use? - posted in PC Gaming: Having recently finally got a gaming computer.I can finally play Oblivion,Fallout 3,NV,4 and both versions of Skyrim on max settings including with mods,plus Morrowind with the graphics extender.So before I start browsing and downloading mods.I thought I should ask some questions.
Vortex has a completely different way of handling installations and I think it will prove to be better than MO. Lots of people who have learned how to tweak games on MO are complaining because Vortex is very different, but I think they were be converted as the devs improve it. I hope Gopher will continue his Vortex videos with more in-depth ones ive seen on other channel smth that looked like purging all mod traces from game folder - and re-deploying them afterwards and id like to get an understanding of those operations The problem with both NMM and MO is that they do not always purge everything when you disable a mod. MO is better but there are changes made by some mods that MO cannot handle. As a result, the DATA folder contains stuff that is not in the Vanilla game. I always purge the DATA folder of all mod changes when I reinstall.
In other words I delete most of the contents in the DATA folder that is not in Vanilla and then do a file validation on Steam to make sure I didn't delete the wrong thing. I also clean the SAVE folder and sometimes make some other changes. Another way to do this and one Gopher has recommended is to save a duplicate vanilla DATA folder before you start adding mods. You can then revert your game to vanilla just by deleting DATA completely changing the name of your backup to DATA and then making a new copy.
Or something similar. Then when you reinstall the mods you are installing on a clean slate and will have fewer unexplained problems.
. Fixes -. Fixed the virtual file system failing when Windows event logs have been cleared (fixes issues with CCleaner, Windows Updates, and blank USVFS logs). Fixed the virtual file system failing to create files that were previously created and deleted (fixes issues with Bodyslide, raceMenu and.possibly. FNIS).
Fixed extracting files with POSIX file attributes (fixes installation problems with XDI.esm). Fixed NCC installs ending up with an incorrect mod ID. Fixed NCC installs adding a space to the end of mod names. Fixed crash when 7-zip fails to extract a file. Fixed ESMs being disabled when disabling a mod when there are other mods with the same ESM available. Fixed FOMOD installs that contain read-only files.
New Features -. New installer!:. All MO2 files are downloaded with the installer.
No more errors about being unable to download MO2 files. External dependencies like Microsoft Visual C 2017 Redistributables will be downloaded and installed as needed. The default install path is now 'C: Modding MO2' in order to avoid UAC issues with portable instances.
The installer will remember your previous install path in future automatic updates. Added separators for the mod list:. To create a separator, select the 'create separator' option next to the 'create empty mod' option in the mod list context menu.
Custom colors may be assigned to separators by right-clicking the separator and choosing the 'select color.' Separator colors will be displayed in the mod list scrollbar to help you find them.
Custom colors may be removed from separators by right-clicking the separator and choosing the 'reset color' option. Collapsible Separators are planned but pose some significant implementation difficulties, so it might take a little longer for this feature to arrive. Added new FNIS automatic integration tool by AnyOldName3:. Accessible from the puzzle (tools) icon on the top bar. You can configure the patches you ned once and then automatically generate FNIS files with just one click.
Allows you to select a mod where to output the FNIS files.WARNING:. If you have GenerateFNISforUser.exe configured as an executable, disable the 'Create files in mod instead of overwrite' option. Added 'send to' functionality to the mod list and plugin list context menus:. Selecting 'top' or 'bottom' will send the mod or plugin to the top or bottom of the list.
Selecting 'priority.' Will allow you to set a specific priority for the mod or plugin.
Selecting 'separator.' In the mod list only will allow you to send the bottom of a section as defined by your separators. Added executable blacklisting. This prevents executables from being hooked by the virtual file system. This can be used to prevent situations where a random program, e.g. Steam.exe, is hooked after running an executable.
This option is accessible in the workarounds settings with the 'Configurable Executables Blacklist'. The default blacklist contains these programs: Chrome.exe, Firefox.exe, TSVNCache.exe, TGitCache.exe, Steam.exe, GameOverlayUI.exe. Added a notes column to the mod list:. The data in this column can be set in the mod info dialog (double-click the mod) in the Notes tab. The top entry field will be shown in the column.
The bottom entry field will be shown in the tooltip you get when hovering over the column. This column is hidden by default. It may be shown by right-clicking the column headers in the mod list (Mod Name, Priority, etc.) and checking Notes.WARNING:. The notes column will appear to the right of the priority column.
You'll probably have to scroll over to see it. Added support for.modgroups files.
They will be shown in the contents column, the flags column, and are an allowed top level game data file. Added refresh button to downloads tab. Added 'Contains Script Extender Files' filter to report any mods with a script extender folder (no DLLs required). Added 'Mod Backup' filter to display mod backups. Added the ability to create a mod backup from the mod list context menu.
Added window geometry memory (size, shape, etc.) for many dialogs and windows. Added the ability to reset window geometry memory in the workarounds settings. Added the ability to customize the color of conflict highlighting and plugin hightling in the general settings. This is especially useful for users of dark themes. Added the ability to prevent locking the MO GUI when running an executable.
This option is available in the workarounds settings by clearing 'Lock GUI when running executable'.WARNING:. Disable this setting at your own risk. Added keyboard shortcuts for the mod list and plugin list name filters. Ctrl+F will select the filter. ESC will clear the filter when the filter is selected. Added the following community themes:. VS2015 variants and Skyrim, courtesy of chintsu!.
Night Eyes, courtesy of ciathyza!. Transparent variants (101 Green, BOSS, Skyrim), courtesy of Gernash!. Updated Paper Dark and Paper Light themes, courtesy of 6788-00!.
Added dialog that appears when the virtual file system fails in a way that no logs are generated. Added a lockout of the MO GUI when full refreshes are happening. Interacting during this period is known to cause crashes. Added the ability to change the path to the managed game in the paths settings. Added 'open origin in explorer' option to the plugin list context menu. Added 'open INIs folder' option in navigation menu Improvements -. Improved profile-specific options to clarify usage:.
'Local game settings' is now 'Use profile-specific Game INI files'. 'Local gamesaves' is now 'Use profile-specific Save Games'. Added tooltips to these options to explain their usage. Improved profile-specific options to be stored in settings.ini in the specific profile instead of determined by the state of certain files.WARNING:. It would be prudent to double-check that your profile settings are preserved after the update. If you downgrade to MO 2.1.5 or earlier, you may need to reapply the profile specific options.
Removed the hint button from some dialogs as there were no hints. Improved automatic INI changes to only write to INI files if the setting would change. Improved automatic archive invalidation feature to re-establish archive invalidation when launching an executable. Improved profile-specific game settings feature to re-establish profile-specific game settings if INI files go missing.
Improved refreshing of data when profile settings have changed. Improved 'Contains Script Extender' filter to look for the existence of plugins (DLLs). Improved Nexus download settings to automatically set the CDN as a preferred server.
Premium users should still get premium speeds from the CDN. Most users will not need to change these settings.
Improved the mod version field to allow up to 32 characters, courtesy of Gaerzi. Improved 'ignore missing game data' option to not create an empty textures folder.
Improved filter pane size to not cut off filter names with standard configurations. Improved performance of the main window when a lot of data is being displayed. Improved 'create empty mod' to create the mod at the priority where you've right-clicked. Improved mod and plugin highlights when selecting multiple mods or multiple plugins. Improved instance switching when MO is launched with moshortcut://. Improved the 'run' button by not allowing the user to press it more than once.
Improved paths settings to prevent extraneous characters from being saved (e.g., an extra slash in the overwrite setting which breaks everything). Improved 'Start Steam?' Dialog to include a cancel button.
The executable will not be launched if this is selected. Improved plugins settings to display the full name of each setting. Improved plugins settings to sort the installed plugins.
Improved setting a mod priority to prevent the user from entering a negative priority. Improved renaming a mod to prevent the user from renaming unmanaged mods and DLC. Improved the data tab to show folder and file icons. Improved the data tab to show empty folders. Improved the data tab to show directories first and files second, similar to Windows Explorer.
Improved the instance name selection dialog by adding SkyrimVR, TTW, and Morrowind. Improved the instance name selection dialog by clarifying the usage of the name. Improved the Notes tab of the mod info dialog to explain its function. Improved the tools menu by sorting the tools by name. Improved the tools menu by allowing plugins to define submenus.
Giving the plugin a display name of 'XYZ/foobar' will create a submenu called 'XYZ' with the action 'foobar' in it. Any other plugins with the same submenu will be grouped together and listed alphabetically. Currently, this only allows a submenu depth of 1.
Improved game detection by no longer requiring a game launcher to be present. Improved 'open instance folder' navigation option to open the instance folder instead of the base directory folder. NXM handler improvements:. Added Morrowind to the list of known games. Added support for passing arguments to registered binaries (allows support for Vortex). Fixed adding arguments when adding an unknown binary from the registry.
Fixed crash when NXM:// registry entry is invalid or missing. Added dialog to display exceptions.
Added support for 'other' games. If no registered handler is found for the game specified, the first 'other' entry found will be used. Added the name of the game to the dialog that pops up when no registered handler is found. Python plugin improvements:.
Added missing PyUnicode Check which prevented QVariants being created from Python 3 strings. Fixed typo preventing IOrganizer::setPluginSetting from being used in Python.
Added forgotten PyDict Check. Added support for the default (invalid) QVariant.
Added working version of IOrganizer::waitForApplication. Updates to support move from Python 2 to Python 3.NOTE:.
All third-party Python plugins will need to be updated after updating to this version. Game-Specific Changes -. FO3, FNV, TTW: Added support for GECKCustom.ini and GECKPrefs.ini.
FNV, TTW: Extended the maximum archive string length to 8192 character to support NVAC. FO4: Added Ultra High Resolution DLC to the list of primary plugins. Morrowind: Added support for local gamesaves. Morrowind: Don't override filetime order and move inactive plugins to the bottom. Miscellaneous -. Updated libraries and tools:.
Python from 2.7.14 to 3.7.0. ICU from 59.1 to ICU 62.1. loot-api from 0.13.6 to 0.13.7. lz4 from v1.8.1.2 to v1.8.3.
NMM from 0.65.4 to 0.65.10. OpenSSL from 1.0.2o to 1.0.2p. SIP from 4.19.8 to 4.19.13. Qt from 5.10.0 to 5.11.2. Version 2.1.5. Improvements -. Added ability to download mods from additional nexus pages (like oldrim for SSE or FO3 for TTW).
New mod column for source game. Info window allows changing the source game. Download query info will request source game. Flag and optional warning for mods from alternate sources. NOTE: You may need to re-register the NXM handler to capture all supported games. Changelog Mod Organizer2.1.2 Virtual File System (usvfs) changes: - All the files that are edited inside the virtual folder will get properly edited now, without getting copied over to overwrite.
This means that plugins or masters edited in xEdit for example will no longer show up in the overwrite folder as they did before and the changes will instead be applied to the original file instead, like it was supposed to do. The old behaviour can be considered a bug. This will greatly lower the cluttering of the overwrite folder. The overwrite folder will now only contain newly generated files that were not already present in the virtual folder.
Fixed a bug with relative paths that could create problems with tools such as BodySlide. Fixed unquoted paths handling for problems with tools such as LODGen. Added hook for new system function introduced by Windows Spring Creators Update which was breaking usvfs. Fixed some script extenders randomly not launching. Fixed most cases of WB folder in use error. Fixed usvfs not being able to map newly added files correctly. Fixed handling of relative paths for two hooked functions.
Fixed handling of wildcards for search functions. Fixed a problem with lower priority files popping up after deleting or renaming mapped files. A great number of stability fixes and improvements.
Graphical Interface changes: - Added support for High DPI Scaling (Forced to System scaling in the exe properties might give better results though). Added maximize button to Fomod installers.
Updated the instance selection dialog to better describe Instances. Changed 'Open in explorer' context menu option of overwrite to appear even if it is empty. Added support for texture (.dds) file preview in data tab.
Fixed left pane 'data tab' to remember what folders were expanded when a file is hidden or unhidden. Changed Downloads menu options to say 'Hide all.'
Instead of 'Remove all.' - Added 'Clear all Filters' button with red outline that only shows up if one or more filters are selected. Fixed a bug that would not allow the already present 'Clear' button under the filters tab to clear 'contains' type of filters. Fixed a bug that enabled the 'Clear' button at the start even if there were no filters selected. Changed the top left Switch Instance icon to give an idea of what the button does (special thanks to twizz0r). Added a Open Folder drop-down menu over the modlist to allow for a more convenient way of accessing relevant folders.
Reintroduced BSA extraction context menus. Optimized icons Mo uses. Included two new custom stylesheets (Paper Dark and Light by 6788-00 aka AlcoholSwabs). Fixed 'File not found' error when previewing files from the data tab.
Disabled IniTweaks section in the mod Information dialog as the feature does not work on MO2. Removed 'Replace category' menu option as it was redundant. Added ability to view texture files preview from the conflicts tab in the mod Information window. Added the 'Open/Execute' option to the conflicts tab in the mod Information window. Fixed hidden downloads not being flagged as uninstalled.
Added flag and description to ESL-flagged ESPs. Functionality changes and new Features: - Added Manage Instances dialog to delete instances. Added various confirmation messages when deleting instances or creating new ones. Changed the instance name selection dialog to not let the user choose a name already in use. Fixed 'Create Files in Mod instead of Overwrite' setting for executables. Added a check to avoid renaming a mod to an existing mod name.
Fixed the Ini Editor to always open the INIs that the game will be using (based on the LocalGameSettings option in profile settings), even the ones in Mygames, and tell what Inis are being edited. Changed 'Remove Installed' and 'Delete Installed' Downloads menu options to not consider the Downloads of Mods that were uninstalled. Fixed a bug that would keep re-activating the 'Create files in mod instead of Overwrite' setting in the executable dialog after the user activated it for the first time. Complete overhaul of export to CSV feature with custom column selection and added entries. Added mod priority, enabled status, primary category, install date and nexus url columns to Export to CSV feature. Fixed incorrect plugin order handling for older games.
Included support for script extender save files when transferring and deleting saves. Added support for Mo2 shortcuts that open specific instances, (in the target field, after the path, add: 'moshortcut://myInstanceName:' where myInstanceName is the name of your instance). Added support for all the new Archive types to the extractor plugin. Fixed missing entry point error messages when opening the mod information dialog for people that have qt dlls referenced in their PATH. Added fix to prevent the same file being downloaded multiple times simultaneously. Fixed Mo showing wrong plugin information when switching between two plugins that have the same name. Supported Games changes: - Added missing Oblivion DLC DLCBattlehornCastle.esp to the DLC list.
Added custom.ini handling for FO3 and for FNV. Added falloutCustom.ini handling for FNV. Added support for FO4VR (provided by matzman666). Added tentative SkyrimVR support (provided by ThomasBrixLarsen). Added very tentative support for Morrowind (provided by Schilduin).
Fixed Morrowind save parsing. Added game support for Tale of Two Wastelands (TTW). Miscellaneous changes: - Updated 7zip library from 9.20 to 18.01. Added Mo2 version to log files.
Updated the Sort Button to use the latest Loot API (should have major performance improvements). Included translations for: -French(fr), -Polish(Poland) (plPL), -Spanish(es), -Dutch(Nederland) -Other languages that are still in wip. Probably a lot more things we forgot.
Version 2.1.1. Mod Organizer v2.1.6 has been released, see the logs section for all the changes. Mod Organizer 2 is a mod manager created by Tannin to support 64bit games like Skyrim Special Edition and Fallout 4 in addition to all the 32bit games MO1 already supported. Tannin discontinued the project when he was hired by the Nexus team to develop their new Vortex mod manager.
MO2 was not completed and was left with many issues. LePresidente managed to fix it to a usable state by himself after SkyrimSE came out, adding support for it, and releasing v2.0.8. The project took up speed again after a few more coders showed up in late 2017, and an incredible amount of work has been done! Credits to Tannin, LePresidente, Silarn, erasmux, AL12, LostDragonist, AnyOldName3 and many others for the development. A Special Thanks to all the testers of the discord server and everyone else involved for supporting the project!
Lead Developers: Lepresidente Silarn erasmux AL12 LostDragonist Developers: bshd // przester AnyOldName3 Project567 Deorder Community Manager: outdatedtv // ponurymazepa MO1 Legacy dev: Nyreen Kandros // enpinion Contact: For a list of currently known issues and general info please see the pinned posts. Mod organizer 1 Legacy (thanks enpinion): Recently Nexus changed their services to be compliant to the new EU rules. These changes required programs making use of them (such as MO1, NMM and MO2) to be updated to be able to still use Nexus integrations. Even though MO1 is End of Life and will not get any future updates, enpinion managed to get the Mo1 code to build and has been able to fix this issue. We discussed with Tannin (original creator of MO1 and Mo2) and decided to host here the fixed Legacy version.
This does not mean that Mo1 will receive any further updates, or that it is supported in any way. The Mo2 team will continue to work on Mo2 and strive to make it the better program. Link to the Mo1 source code: Mod Organizer 1 original page: Mo1.3.15 changelog. Mod Organizer 1.3.12 -. Updated to Nexus' download URI. Updated to Qt 5.4.2 Mod Organizer 1.3.13 -. SSL/TLS function is implemented (to support https).
Mod Organizer 1.3.14 -. Download over CDN and an alternative method to get query metadata is added. Error #299 caused by Nexus incorrect file content header is now patched. Thanks to the Mod Organizer 2 team for diagnosing the problem. Mod Organizer 1.3.15. EU#1 Download server workaround applied. Default tab is restored.
Known Issues: -. All MO1.3.11 known issues. Download from Nexus can still give errors due to Nexus Server problems (they have been informed and are investigating), specifically the #EU1 server seems to not return the correct download urls. A workaround is selecting the CDN server (which now is able to provide Premium services) as the favourite server in the MO settings.
If this still doesn't work you should try setting another server (different from EU1) instead. UI is not DPIAware.
It's well known bug for old Qt-based application. Library Details: OpenSSL-1.0.2o Sip: 4.16.9 zlib: 1.2.11 icu: 53 Credits go to enpinion for the fixes and Tannin for the program. Mod Organizer 2 is an open project in the hands of the community, there are problems that need to be solved and things that could be added.
MO2 really needs developers and if you have the programming skills and some free time you can really improve the experience of the modding community. To have more information please join the open MO2 Development discord server: You can find the MO2 code here: It's subdivided into many repositories that can be found under the Modorganizer2 GiitHub organization repositories. To build and setup a development environment on your machine of MO2 there is an umbrella project that handles it. If you want to help translate MO2 to your language you should join the discord server too and head to the #translation channel. Through the work of a few people of the community MO2 has come quite far, now it needs some more of those people to go further.
(literally things will not get fixed if no one shows up to fix them) MO2 survived because people spontaneously offered their help where they could, no one forces them to continue spending their limited free time on the project. So nothing is to be expected, everything is to be thanked for. Mod Organizer (MO) is a tool for managing mod collections of arbitrary size. It is specifically designed for people who like to experiment with mods and thus need an easy and reliable way to install and uninstall them. The special fact about MO2 is that it uses a Virtual File System (VFS) instead of actually installing your mods into the Data folder of the game.
MO2 uses it's VFS to trick the game and other programs into thinking that the mods are installed in the data folder while they are actually installed in their own separated folders. This VFS is called USVFS (User Space VFS), which is different from the VFS that MO1 used, since the old one did not support 64bit programs, but it works on a similar concept. Which means that only programs started through MO2 will see the mods, while for the rest of the world the game will remain vanilla.
The VFS works by hooking the target program (and any of it's children processes), intercepting all the requests of accessing files and folders, if those are referred to the game Data folder then usvfs will intervene and change the answer so that it looks to the program like all the Mods files are located there as well (this kind of behavior is similar to how some types of malware behave and that is why some Antivirus will flag usvfs badly). This system allows for a process specific virtual folder that does not take up space and can be interacted with without having to actually move or copy any files. The implementation of usvfs is quite complex and low level as it goes and hooks Windows API calls, keeping a shared record across hooked process of the changes such as added files and deleted ones in real time.
Usvfs is a standalone library that is meant to be usable in different applications other than MO2, as such it does not contain MO specific code like the MO1 VFS did (hook.dll). Differences with Mod Organizer 1: MO1 and Mo2 can be considered different programs.
The main difference between the two is that the virtual file system (vfs) used by Mo1 does did not support 64bit games. Because of this MO2 has a completely new vfs library (called usvfs) that was made to support 64bit programs as well. This library is more separate and independent from the rest of the program allowing for it to be potentially used even by other programs. Another major difference is that Mo1 had a special system to manage Bethesda Archives (BSAs). Tannin (the creator of both MO1 and MO2) decided to not include this feature in MO2 for the fact that it subverted how the the game actually loaded the Archives causing problems with tools and mods that relied on the original system to work.
That in addition to the sheer complexity of implementing the feature with the new virtualization library and making it work with all the supported games (the Mo1 system was based on a hack). From his experience and all the problems he had with Mo1, Tannin came to the conclusion that using a special system for BSA management that did not follow what the game did was a mistake. We agree on that fact, having seen the problems it caused and compromises that the feature would have required. We are working though in restoring BSA (and all other typs of Archives like BA2) parsing for conflict detection.
This time it will follow the standard game rules, which are: All Archives are loaded in the order of the plugins loading them (in Mo2 you can't disable dummy plugins), and after that all loose assets are loaded on top. So loose assets can't be overwritten by archives. We are looking for the best ways to visually show the conflicts of BSAs as they don't follow left pane order anymore, but right pane instead.
We will be looking into ways to not use dummy plugins to load BSAs in the future. MO2 is of course receiving active development from the community while Mo1 does not, which means that there are and will be new features in MO2. Listing everything here would be too long so to have a better idea of all the things that Mo2 adds you are invited to read the Changelogs that you can find under the LOGS tab. Here is the list of all the games currently supported by MO2:. Morrowind. Oblivion(.). Fallout 3.
Fallout NV. Tale of Two Wastelands (TTW).
Skyrim. Skyrim SE.
Skyrim VR. Fallout 4. Fallout 4 VR (.) Currently the steam version of OBSE is currently not supported and for the non steam version OBSE plugins need to be manually placed in the game Data folder to work. Help wanted to fix this. MOD ISOLATION What mod isolation means is that each mod is installed into its own directory outside the actual data directory. Through some magic MO then shows the game (and any other 3rd party tool that works on the data directory) a 'virtual' data directory that is a merger of the actual data directory and all the mod directories. This way no file ever get overwritten when you install a mod and your data directory can remain in a vanilla state.
You can simply change the 'installation order' of mods from the gui and deinstall or temporarily deactivate one without breaking other mods. PROFILES With MO2, you can have different mods active in different playthroughs. You can consider the installed mods as a pool of mods, and for each profile you can have a different set of them active.
Disabled mods will not be visible to the game; as far as the game is concerned, they are not there at all. Saves (along with their script extender counterparts) can be transferred or copied character-by-character inside of a profile (and back out), and you can then load only those profile saves in the game. You can also copy in an individual settings file into the profile, and these settings will be unique to that profile. The settings can also be independently edited inside MO or via tools run through MO. (The settings files will appear to be in their standard location when edited this way.) (This feature was removed from MO2 by Tannin and is pending review). (This feature was removed from MO2 by Tannin and is pending review) BSA files are archives that contain assets like textures, meshes, sounds, scripts. All vanilla data resides in BSAs and by default, the Skyrim Creation Kit packages assets for mods in BSAs.
Traditionally you can not control priority between BSAs and 'loose' files (that is: assets that came as individual files), BSAs are always overwritten. Therefore, if you wanted to use files from a BSA over files from a mod that came as 'loose' files, you'd have to figure out and delete the correct files manually.
MO fixes this problems and afaik it is the only tool available to do so. In the UI, check all BSAs you want loaded and you're ready to go. Files from BSAs have priority according to their installation order (left pane) - They overwrite files from mods with lower priorities and don't overwrite files with higher priority. The limit of enables BSAs is approx 8000).
LOAD MECHANISM To work its magic, a part of MO needs to be active while the game is running. To achieve this, you can start the game from the MO User Interface. The GUI also offers the option to create shortcuts that will activate a minimal MO instance (basically just a dialog box) and immediately run the game (or related tools).
This virtualization system was completely reworked in MO2 in order to support a wider variety of tools and games - both 32 and 64 bit. Due to the nature of this rewrite, the older load mechanisms no longer function for the time being. This should not be an issue for the vast majority of tools and the standard virtualization library should work fine. For Oblivion (Steam version) players: MO2 is currently unable to support the Steam OBSE loader as this requires us to hook the entire Steam application due to the way it works. We currently don't have a workaround for this but are considering our options.
All other versions of the game should work. Mod Organizer 2 supports third party plugins! These work simply by being placed in the Plugins folder in the Mo2 install location.
Mo2 offers plugin management though its settings menu. You can write your own C and now even Python plugins (thanks to the work of AnyOldName3) to add functionalities to MO2, the Python ones being particularly interesting since they don't need you to compile any code as you can simply drop the.py file in the plugins folder.
Mo2 already uses plugins for many parts of the current functionalities (supported games are plugins, the BSA extractor is a plugin, the texture preview is a plugin etc.). Your third party plugins can be distributed on Nexus or GitHub or wherever you prefer. If they work well and could be useful for a good amount of users, we would be happy to consider incorporating them in the main Mo2 release under your request. Here you can find more info on writing your own Mo2 plugins: Looking at existing plugins might be the best way to learn so we will list here the existing Mo2 plugins for reference.
List of the known MO2 Third Party Plugins. Mod Organizer 2 should not be installed inside a system protected folder such as Programs Files (x86). Also avoid installing MO2 inside the Game folder as this causes problems with the vfs library. Installer: Simplest for non-portable instanced installations, using the installer should be as simple as downloading and running the exe and specifying your install directory. It will download and install all necessary components required to run MO2. If you want to update an existing Mo2 install using the installer, simply select your current MO2 folder as the install location and the installer will take care of the rest without endangering your modded setup. As Windows tends to trust installer files better than manually extracted files, using the installer may provide a more problem-free experience.
Archive: Often ideal for portable installations, simply extract MO2 to a new location for each game you wish to manage. It can still be used for instanced installs. Before unpacking the Mod Organizer 2 zip, make sure to open the properties and hit 'Unblock' if it shows up.
If you don't do this then various libraries may fail to load or run when trying to use Mod Organizer. This can break certain installers or the virtualization system altogether. If you wish to update an existing Mo2 installation it is generally a good idea to make a clean upgrade following these instructions: 1. Go to your MO2 installation directory, delete all directories and files EXCEPT for downloads, mods, profiles, overwrite, ModOrganizer.ini and categories.dat (leave those dirs and files, delete the rest). Extract the new version to this location. Mod Organizer 2 depends on the MSVC 2017 runtime library.
You must download and install this for MO2 to work properly (in addition to the Extra Steps). Download and install both the x86 and x64 versions of the 2017 redistributable: If you are not on Win10 you might also need: Note: Once installed, make sure the MO2 directory and/or files are excluded from any antivirus you may have installed. MO2's virtualization system hooks into the running applications and modifies system calls, and many antiviruses do not like this. Migrating from Mod Organizer 1: GamerPoets covered this in this video of his official MO2 guide (that we highly recommend). Q: When I run a program through MO2 it does not see the mods I have installed!
A: The first thing to try is to reboot the PC by using the 'restart' option (shutdown+start does not fix it), this will fix issues caused by cleaning programs such as CCleaner removing the Windows Event Logs, which in turn will break the VFS, for this reason you should refrain from cleaning those. If the reboot did not fix it then there is a very good chance your Antivirus is blocking the VFS. To see if this is the case temporarily disable the Real Time protection of your AV and reinstall MO2 (to make sure the AV has not deleted some). If this still does not work then you should check this troubleshooting wiki: In case that does not work either you should try joining the MO2 dev server and explain the issue, the other users and developers will try to help solving the issue. Q: I installed a mod and it's not working! A: Please first verify that the directory structure is correct.
Many mods are not packaged for easy installation. The files in the MO mod directory should match the files that go into the Data directory in your game. You may have to shift files around. Mods not showing up in game could also be an indication that your MO2 files are being blocked by Windows or your antivirus. Please work through any known issues stickied in the comments before reporting your issue. Q: What is the performance impact of using Mod Organizer?
A: There are no additional disk accesses once the application is running, and CPU impact is minimal. MO2 itself should have minimal memory impact and influence on performance. Before you report performance issues when using MO, please ensure it's not the installed mods causing it! The only time the performance impact of MO may be noticeable is during startup while the game is searching for files and routed to the virtualized directories. Once the game is loaded, very little is routed to the VFS.
Q: Can Mod Organizer manage mods that reside outside the data directory (i.e. FXAA/ENB, BOSS.)? A: No, MO2 is intended to manage mods that are explicitly placed inside your Data directory.
Mods that use or override DLL files in the game's main directory are out-of-scope for MO2. However, certain applications, such as script extenders and LOOT, are detected and added automatically to the MO2 launcher. In addition, most tools can be run through MO2 to pick up on the virtualized mods. Q: How do I find out if MO is working? A: Install a mod with a visible impact!
Also, check that modorganizer and usvfs logs are created. You can open the log directory through MO2's interface. Q: I want to uninstall MO, what do I do? A: First, inside MO, go to settings and select 'Mod Organizer' for the load mechanism. Close MO and then just stop using it. If you used the installer, the standard Windows uninstall tool should remove all of the core MO files but will likely leave behind your profiles, mods, and downloads. You can delete the Mod Organizer directory if you're sure you need nothing from it anymore (like mod archives, savegames).
If you're using an instanced installation, you may also have a ModOrganizer directory in your Local AppData directory which you can also delete. (Again, be sure you want to delete these directories as they may contain your mod setup, saves, and mod downloads.) Finally, if you moved any of your profile directories in the Mod Organizer settings, those will also need to be deleted separately. Q: How do I update? A: When an newer version of MO is available, an update-icon in MO is activated.
Simply click it and follow the on-screen instructions to update. Sometimes, when you first click the update icon, MO will only say it logged in to Nexus but nothing else. In that case, click the icon again. If you want to update to a beta version or the update process doesn't work for some reason you can download the update file manually (from the 'update' category or the 'main' file if one exists for the newest version) and unpack it to your Mod Organizer directory.
If you did this right, you should be asked to overwrite files. Confirm that. Q: Some mods are shown as having an available update but there is none (or vice versa) A: The most likely reason is that the mod author didn't version his mod (or the files of a mod) in a consistent, logical way. It's impossible to account for all of these cases. If a mod is versioned in a nonsensical way, it's up to the author to change the way they version their mods. Take a close look at the version number: the 'old' version might be called 0.75.0 and the new one 0.8.0 whereas another mod might be versioned 0.8.0, 0.9.0, 0.10.0 where 0.10.0 is newer than 0.9.0.
It's impossible to support both versioning schemes and since the second is more standard and makes more sense, this is what MO supports (75 is bigger than 8). Some mods may also be versioned 0.9.0, 0.9.0a, 0.9.0b, 0.9.0c, while others may use 'a' to indicate an alpha version and 'b' to indicate a beta. Again, there is no way to support both and since it makes no sense to mix numbered versions AND letters, MO supports alpha/beta markers. If however you think a mod is versioned correctly and MO is treating it incorrectly, let us know, and always include the mod name. Be aware that in many cases fixing version interpretation for one mod may break it for another, and we will support what makes sense for the most mods. Q: SkyUI (or some other mod) installer says SKSE is not installed!
A: Due to the way MO currently works, the installer can't see SKSE. If the installer allows you to continue despite the error (SkyUI does), do that and the mod will work. If the installer doesn't, you have to use a different installation mechanism (i.e. A manual installer).
We may attempt to virtualize scripted installers in the future. Q: The endorsements displayed in MO are different from what the page displays A: Please verify you're logging in with the same user credentials in MO and on Nexus.
Now 'check for updates'. This should update all endorsement info in MO. Q: When I download some mods, the download shows a warning sign and it doesn't have version information. 'Query Info' also doesn't work. A: There seems to be a limitation in the Nexus protocol that causes the page to only report 30 files to applications. If a mod has more than that, the newer files aren't visible to MO.
To my knowledge this can't be fixed on my end, it has to be fixed by Nexus or the mod author needs to clean out his old files. Q: Does MO support OMODs? A: Not yet Q: Will you add support for OMODs? A: It's something we hope to do before too long Q: Can I use MO for multiple games? You can create a new instance for a new game by pressing the top left button and selecting new instance. An alternative is to simply have a portable instance of MO2 for each game.
Be aware that MO2 only allows for one instance to be opened at a time, so you can't have two MO2 processes running at the same time. Q: The ModOrganizer.log file never gets truncated? A: This happens if an application started from MO doesn't get closed. This could be a launcher that sticks around after the game ended. Another good candidate is Steam. If you use a Steam version of your game (includes all versions of Skyrim), please make sure Steam is running before you start the game. Also, it is safe to manually delete the log file.
Q: I receive an error along the lines of 'The ordinal xyz could not be located in the dynamic link library LIBEAY32.dll' or 'QSslSocket: cannot resolve.' A: This is hopefully resolved on the latest versions of MO2. Q: I want to report a bug!
A: Please post issues to the issue tracker at. Please do include as much relevant information as you can think of and as little irrelevant information as you can. Your OS is relevant if you got a crash but probably not if there is a translation mistake. Please check the issue tracker if your bug has been reported before but if you're unsure, feel free to report it anyway, removing incorrect bugs is a lot easier than telephatically learning about issues. Q: How can I contact you (Tannin)?
A: If you want to report a bug or request a feature, please go to Otherwise please contact me by private message via nexus or send a mail to sherb at gmx.net To contact the MO2 Dev team, you can visit their public discord server. Issues, problems and suggestions should be reported to the open discord server: or to the github page (in case they are not user specific):. Discord is also where dev builds are tested, bugs are reported and investigated, suggestions are discussed etc. There is a good number of users there willing to help people with issues in addition to the Developers, so that they don't have to handle everything personally. Please don't post issues in the comment section, as monitoring them would be highly inefficient and inconvenient for the developers. Discord and GitHub offer much better and efficient ways to keep track of issues and debug directly with the users that have the problem.