Install "Mod Organizer 2"

Again, for this example, it is assumed that a drive D:\ is used for the setup. You can do all this with any other drive (E:, F:, X: or whatever). A few more notes about MO2:

  • If you have a paid Nexus account, mod installation will be more seamless and downloads a lot faster with MO2. I recommend it, also to incentivize the Nexus and mod devs for all their hard work.
  • Modding with MO2 is a HUGE, and complex topic on its own. This article will NOT go into any detail about that. There are tons and tons of tutorials related to MO2, and it is highly recommended to familiarize yourself with MO2 by going through some of them.

OK, here's the basic setup:

  • Create directory "D:\Skyrim Modding"
  • Install "ModOrganizer 2" ("MO2"):
  • Install "Skyrim Script Extender" ("SKSE"):
    • Download SKSE: SKSE Homepage
    • use the SKSE version matching your Skyrim version 1.640, e.g. "Current Anniversary Edition build 2.2.3".
    • Unpack the downloaded archive and follow its instructions to install it! This is the only time where you will be manually installing anything into the actual Skyrim game installation directory.
  • Install "BethINI":
    • Download BethINI: Nexus Download
    • Follow the installation instructions on the Nexus mod homepage

Once all this is done on both systems, do these steps also on both systems once:

  • Launch "BethINI" through MO2 (select "BethINI" in the drop-down box in MO2, and then click "Run")
  • Set the most important settings, i.e. resolution, and a power setting, e.g. "ultra" on the gaming PC, and probably a lower one on the portable device.
  • Save and exit

You should now be able to actually launch Skyrim on both systems by selecting "SKSE" in the "MO2" drop-down, and then click "Run". Try that once, but only launch into the title screen; exit back to the desktop without starting a game yet.