We have two independend Domino Domains running, one with 6.5 and another with 8.5.1 now. I’m a developer for both “worlds”. I’ve installed 6.5 and 8.5.1 client in separate directories.
Up to 8.0.2 i was able to launch nlnotes.exe for 6.5 and 8.0.2 at the same time and so I could work in both applications all day without having to close onle client and start the other each time.
Beginning with 8.5.1 I must launch “notes.exe” instead of “nlnotes.exe”, otherwise I cannot launch the designer because it is not supported any more with the “basic client”.
The only way now is to start 8.5.1 notes.exe first and then the 6.5 nlnotes.exe, otherwise the second application will not start.
Is there a better way to run these 2 clients without restrictions simultanously, e.g. undocumented command line switches or something else?
Subject: Use VirtualBox and set up separate environments
Works perfectly and makes upgrades a snap compared to a mixed environment.
I used to run my Notes clients the way you try to do it earlier. At most I had about 10 different client environments.
I have switched to use VirtualBox now and this approach has lots of advantages:
Notes is easier to maintain.
I can now have the exact same installed version as the one my customer uses. Also there is no need to fiddle with registry before each upgrade to make sure any existing installs are not upgraded.
I can have different VPN setups
Before I had to maintain different VPN setups in my main Windows OS. This made Windows networking unstable as VPN software from different providers were installed on the same OS.
I can run Linux OS on my client
For stability reasons I now run Ubuntu Linux on my computer and the native Notes client for accessing company email.
Works perfectly! 
Subject: It also has one big disadvantage
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It’s a heinous resource hog compared to simply launching another Notes instance. With 2GB memory I used to run eight separate Notes instances plus a server and not run out of memory, nor lose response time. I had to add 2 more GB (4 total now) to even run a piddly two VMs at once and this slows the entire machine down horribly. That extra memory also cut my battery life from nearly 5 hours to about an hour and a half.- If you have an 8 core workstation with 16GB RAM you’re not going to care. If you have only two cores and less than 4GB of RAM you’re going to be in a world of hurt with virtual machines.
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On the bright side Ove is right on target with the advantages, and the the separate VPNs are very, very nice.
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As far as I’m concerned it is a severe price to pay to “regain” functionality that used to be simple and work beautifully.
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I’ve seen other posts that if you run 8.5 first, then 6.5, it will work. That was not my experience. They both launch, yes, but if I didn’t have DDE loaded before I ran R6, then it would never load. That’s not working in my book.
There it is…