# Installing PCGen Manually

If you have PCGen Currently installed on your system, you can either install the new version into a new directory or overwrite the old version currently on your system.

CAUTION! UPGRADING IS NOT FOOLPROOF AND IS NOT GUARANTEED TO WORK 100%.

Installing a new version over an old version of PCGen may cause issues when you attempt to run the new version. See Upgrading PCGen for further info.

A fresh install is best performed by unzipping pcgenXXX_full.zip to a desired folder on your computer. To run the application, run either pcgen.bat (which will also open a debug window which will display any errors during the run) or pcgen.jar (The Java executeable)

To transfer characters from one version of PCGen to the new version of PCGen, all you need to do is copy the pcg files from the "characters" directory from the old version of PCGen to the new version.

NOTE: If you copy PCGen from one location to another you must delete the options.ini file. This file holds directory locations which will no longer be valid! Deleting the options.ini file will reset PCGen to all its default settings so ensure that you have made a note of you current settings before proceeding. A new file will be created when PCGen is started if necessary.