Running multiple instances of Lotus Notes

Having two, three or even 12 Lotus Notes clients logged on to different IDs or domains at the same time lets developers and testers work without interruption. Not having to switch IDs or locations allows everyone to work more efficiently. The setup is simple and it works for all versions of Lotus Notes up to and including version 8.0.

Some steps will vary according to your organization's default installation. Here are the basic steps:

  1. Move Notes.ini to your data directory.

  2. Create a data directory for each additional client that you want to implement.

  3. Copy Notes.ini, Names.nsf and Desktop.dsk to each data directory.

  4. Modify Notes.ini in each directory so that it points to the data directory where it's located.

  5. Copy your Lotus Notes desktop icon.

  6. Change the executable from Notes.exe to nlnotes.exe.

  7. Point your startup directory to the data directory.

  8. Remove the Notes.ini specification from the end of the target line (nlnotes.exe).

  9. Start each additional client separately and switch to the desired ID.

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This was first published in August 2009

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