Hardware Profiles guide?

[ChrisR Oz]

Hi Robin,

There does not appear to be a section on the "Hardware Profiles" and their manager in the online User Help.
Can you point me to that please?

Thank you.
Cheers, Chris.

[admin]

Hi,

unfortunately the online manual/help file is now out of date by a couple of years.

The new 'Other Settings Profiles' option in the File menu provides a more user-friendly way to get to the same functionality that has been available for some time using the '/instance' command line parameter (https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#Comman ... 0Arguments). Where previously you would have to make your own desktop Shortcuts with the parameter added, this can now be done from within SharpCap (as well as creating/naming/deleting profiles).

cheers,

Robin

[ChrisR Oz]

Cool.

Do you have some notes on using these new menus?
Cheers, Chris.

[admin]

Hi Chris,

looks like I never did a post explaining that new feature (usually I do, but must have missed this one). So, here goes...

In the file menu you will find a new 'Other Settings Profiles' menu item. This contains sub-items to easily launch any other settings profiles that have been created already and a 'Manage...' sub item to allow you to manage settings profiles.

As a reminder, a settings profile is a completely separate set of SharpCap settings, allowing you to have multiple independent configurations of SharpCap on the same computer. Very little is shared between different settings profiles, except

* Your SharpCap Pro license (if installed)
* Saved camera settings profiles (capture profiles)
* Custom catalog files
* Camera sensor analysis data

Everything that you can enter in the main Settings window and also settings in various features like live stacking, focus, etc, are not shared between profiles.

Use 'File->Other Settings Profiles->Manage' to bring up the window that allows management of settings profiles as shown below :

Screenshot 2026-03-30 154950.png (59.13 KiB) Viewed 1132 times

You see a list of profiles that already exist, starting with the 'Default' profile. Each profile can have a name and also shows you the last used camera and configured ASCOM hardware for each profile.

In this window you can

* Rename any existing profile (except the first 'Default' profile). Click on the profile to rename and press the 'Rename' button.
* Create a new profile by copying an existing one. Click on the profile to copy and press the 'Create Copy' button.
* Create/update a desktop shortcut for any profile - again select the profile you want by clicking on it, then use the 'Create Desktop Shortcut' button - these shortcuts provide an easy way to get to the alternative profiles
* Delete a profile, except the 'Default' profile.

That's about all there is to it - once you have created some additional profiles, you will see them listed in the File->Other Settings Profiles menu, allowing you to launch alternative profiles from there as well as from any Desktop shortcuts you have created.

cheers,

Robin

[ChrisR Oz]

Thanks Robin.