Running multiple instances of TracerPlus Connect on one machine

There may be a case where you would like to run more than one instance of TracerPlus Connect at one time on any given PC.  Normally, this would be an issue because your network port configurations are only available for one application at any one time.  If you were to run two or more instances of TracerPlus Connect on the same machine, each of those instances would be fighting for the same network port as you have them defined in your TracerPlus Connect preferences.  Luckily, we have an option to help for this.

You will find a file named tpcinstances.tcs in your C:\ProgramData\PTS\TracerPlus Connect\SystemInfo\System folder. This is a standard text file and can be opened with any text editor (like notepad). This file allows you to define multiple instances rules and where the configuration files reside for each of those instances.  Each of the unique instances you want to create should be created as a new entry in the file below.

The file will look something like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<instances>
  <instance majorversion="10" executingpath="file:\C:\Program Files (x86)\PTS\TracerPlus Connect 10" sysfilepath="C:\ProgramData\PTS\TracerPlus Connect\SystemInfo\System\" />
</instances>

A few of the important settings per instance entry(<instance>):

• majorversion:  This merely represents the major version of TracerPlus Connect you are using.  Currently, this is version 10.
• executingpath:  This is the file path for the instance of TP Connect that you want to control.
• sysfilepath:  This is the path for the associated executingpath for the specific instance of TP Connect you want to control.

Now, to use this file, you simply need to copy the TracerPlus Connect install files to these listed executingpath folders and be sure to copy the C:\ProgramData\PTS\TracerPlus Connect\SystemInfo\System files to the assigned sysfilepath folder you defined above.

Once that is complete, you can create a shortcut to the TPConnect_ms.exe application in those newly created instances or you can simply double click the TPConnect_ms.exe in the respective folder in order to start them.