How to Run a Second OBS Studio Instance

Running a secondary, independent instance of OBS Studio is highly useful for creators who need different settings, profiles, and scenes active simultaneously. This guide provides a straightforward, step-by-step walkthrough on how to configure a second OBS Studio instance on Windows using a dedicated folder and shortcut, allowing it to run with its own distinct configuration directory without interfering with your primary setup.

Step 1: Create a Dedicated Folder for the Second Instance

To prevent the second instance of OBS from writing to your primary configuration files in your system’s AppData directory, you must set up a portable version.

  1. Navigate to your primary OBS Studio installation folder (typically C:\Program Files\obs-studio).
  2. Copy the entire obs-studio folder.
  3. Paste the folder into a location where your user account has full read/write permissions, such as C:\ or another drive (for example, C:\OBS-Secondary).

Step 2: Enable Portable Mode

Enabling portable mode forces this specific copy of OBS to save all of its profiles, scenes, and settings locally within its own folder.

  1. Open your newly pasted folder (C:\OBS-Secondary).
  2. Right-click inside the empty space of the root folder, select New, and click Text Document.
  3. Name this new file portable_mode.txt (ensure the file extension is .txt and not .txt.txt).

Step 3: Create a Desktop Shortcut

Next, you need to create a dedicated shortcut to launch this specific secondary executable.

  1. Inside your OBS-Secondary folder, open the bin folder, and then open the 64bit folder.
  2. Locate the obs64.exe file.
  3. Right-click obs64.exe, hover over Send to, and select Desktop (create shortcut).

Step 4: Add the Multi-Instance Flag to the Shortcut

By default, OBS Studio will try to prevent a second instance from opening if one is already running. You can bypass this restriction by adding a launch parameter to your new shortcut.

  1. Go to your desktop and locate the newly created shortcut. Rename it to something distinct, like OBS - Second Instance.
  2. Right-click the shortcut and select Properties.
  3. In the Shortcut tab, locate the Target field.
  4. Click inside the Target field, scroll to the very end of the text, add a single space, and type --multi (or -m).
    • Example: "C:\OBS-Secondary\bin\64bit\obs64.exe" --multi
  5. Click Apply and then OK to save the changes.

Step 5: Launch and Test

You can now open your main OBS Studio application as you normally would. Once it is running, double-click your new OBS - Second Instance desktop shortcut. The second instance will launch with a completely fresh setup wizard, running independently with its own distinct configuration directory.