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Running Multiple Independent Instances of LightBurn

Info

This guide is intended for Windows users only presently. The requirements to adjust this behavior and replicate it on macOS and Linux will not be the same. This may be addressed in the future.

Danger

This guide is for advanced users, and is non-trivial to follow. Caution is advised.

If a user has a need to run multiple fully independent instances of LightBurn, rather than running one "setup", such as if changing device configurations concurrently with two running copies, they may find themselves needing to seperate their profiles. This is not a suggested workflow, but is documented in the event a user needs this workflow.

Steps

First, open LightBurn and go to File > Export Prefs. Save the .lbprefs file to a known location. Then fully close LightBurn.

Open File Explorer to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\LightBurn\, as this is where the Start Menu links to LightBurn are stored.

Copy/Paste the LightBurn shortcut twice and rename them. Now you can use something other than A and B if you want. It will ask you to confirm administrator privileges to be able to edit start menu shortcuts. Click OK each time.

Right click on the first shortcut file and click Properties. Then modify the Target line to now show like follows:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c "SET LB_SETTINGSFOLDER=%USERPROFILE%\LightBurn_A&& START /D ^"C:\Program Files\LightBurn\^" LightBurn.exe"

Click Apply and confirm admin permissions again.

Repeating this step for the other shortcut, but using the target link as shown below:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c "SET LB_SETTINGSFOLDER=%USERPROFILE%\LightBurn_B&& START /D ^"C:\Program Files\LightBurn\^" LightBurn.exe"

Note

Please observe that in the above text LightBurn_A changed to LightBurn_B, with no space between the B and the &&. This syntax is incredibly important.

Now both of these should show up in your Start menu. Launch LightBurn via the "A" link, and you'll be shown Help & Notes, as if it were a brand new installation. You won't need to re-enter your license key, it's the same device.

Click OK to close that dialog. LightBurn should prompt the user with the Devices dialog. Click on Import Preferences on the bottom left.

Navigate to and load the preferences you saved at the beginning; you'll notice that LightBurn will have loaded all of your devices from the prefs backup.

Select and remove any devices you don't want associated with this profile, and then click OK. Then open the B link and repeat the process.

Done!

Assuming all steps were successfully completed, you should now have 2 brand new preferences directories at %USERPROFILE%\LightBurn_A and %USERPROFILE%\LightBurn_B (%USERPROFILE% will resolve to the full path on C:\ for your user directory).

Now when you run either of these LightBurn instances via the shortcuts they will be completely independent of one another. They will not overwrite each other's preferences and any changes you make to the device on each should persist. You will also have completely independent recent file lists, rotate/shear options, etc. Everything will be completely independent.

Danger

While LightBurn allows for simultaneous use of multiple devices without conflicting, cameras and lasers cannot be used by multiple instances of LightBurn concurrently. A DSP controller set up as "Ruida A" could not be accessed in the A and B configurations simultaneously.

Origin

This guide originated as a post on our forum by one of our developers. For reference, that guide can be found here.