How To Use Nexus Mod Manager

Downloaded the Nexus Mod Manager but not sure how to get started? We'll show you how! Our handy guide on the Nexus Mod Manager has everything you need to know to get the system started. You'll be modding games before you know it.

How To Use Nexus Mod Manager

The great thing about Nexus Mod Manager is how it quickly becomes an easily accessible self made library of your moddable games. It simply offers mod categories that instantly keep your collection tidy, offering an easy to find mod system, no matter how many you may have installed. We’ve all seen those YouTube videos of other players creating a next-gen looking Skyrim. Some of us have even attempted the mammoth task ourselves, as I did in my Quest For A Next Gen Skyrim. En masse, modding can get complicated. But if you’re just starting out, there’s no need to worry about that just yet. For now, let’s just grab the app and get things up and running. 

Of course, it’s not just the famed Skyrim modding community that benefits from Nexus. The platform also supports a great many other titles. It’s a little known secret that Nexus Mod Manager actually supports a total of 564 games as of March 2018!

Most Popular Games At The Nexus

Game
Number of Mods
Skyrim 40,144
Oblivion 27,629
Fallout: New Vegas 15,142
Fallout 3 13,705
Morrowind 3,336
Dragon Age 2,243
Mount & Blade  2,068
War Thunder  1,540
Dragon Age 2 984

If that doesn’t whet your appetite for mods, I don’t know what will. Bear in mind the figures above may be different compared to what you may see today. More than anything, this table justifies how massive the modding community is and how much choice will be available to you. 

1. Grab The Nexus Mod Manager App For Your PC

This is simply a case of downloading the program, as you would for anything else online. So the first thing you’ll need to do is head over to the official Nexus Mod Manager site and create an account (if you’re forgetful like me, make sure you remember these login details for later). Once you’ve done that, it’s time to get the program itself. Go ahead and grab the applicable version in this link

When it’s downloaded, locate the file and begin installation. This part is very straightforward. However, when it’s done installing, it’ll be a very useful engine and scan your computer for any compatible games you have installed. Once it’s detected them, go ahead and click the green tick next to the game you wish to install future mods on. 

How To Use Nexus Mod Manager - Game sync

If you definitely have a game installed and Nexus has not picked up on it, don’t panic! You can select a browse option to find the root file for the game, if perhaps you have it installed on a different hard drive. 

2. Syncing Up Your Games

When Nexus is done scanning your files and you’re happy that it’s detected everything, click OK. Then select the game you intend to manage. If you have a few games, don’t worry about walking away from the others. This game selection screen will pop up everytime you start Nexus Mod Manager, so jumping from one game to the next is a piece of cake. 

If it’s your first time selecting that game in Nexus Mod Manager, you’ll need to pick a file location for the mods to be stored in. Unless you’ve been fiddling with exactly where in your hard drive, or which hard drive games belong in, you should have an automatic file location available. Simply click OK from there. Otherwise, you can browse a specific file location if you choose. 

Two Issues Easily Overcome

  • “Missing INI” – If you get an error message with a red cross that states, “You have no Skyrim INI file”, simply start up Skyrim and then close it. It’s that first time setup Nexus is looking for. The oldest trick in the book – turn it on and off again! 

  • “Unable to get write permissions” – This one is for any users still running Windows Vista or Windows 7. All you need to do here is right click Skyrim on the Start Menu > select Properties > click the Compatibility tab > click Run this program as an Administrator > click Apply then OK. Sorted. 

3. Your NMM Library Is Good To Go 

As long as everything is working, Nexus will ask you about categories in an info box. This is one of my favourite aspects to Nexus as it organizes your mods tidily without the user having to micromanage everything for the sake of ease. Absolutely click OK on this box and you won’t regret it. In the case of Skyrim, there are loads of categories ranging from animations, to NPCs to new magic spells. 

This list of categories will display with a number in a bracket when you right click “Categories” at the top of your list. This will inform you of the mods you’ve downloaded and where they’ve gone so you know how to dig them up whenever you please. One of the newer updates allows you to filter selected categories so you can focus on a specific subset of mods. 

How To Use Nexus Mod Manager - Filtering

4.  Downloading Mods From The Nexus 

To get started downloading mods, you’ll need to jump back to your internet browser and get back on the Nexus website that you made an account for earlier. There’s still no way for Nexus Mod Manager to link the browser to the app, so we’ll fix that next.

On your downloaded app, at the bottom left of the screen, you’ll see a little red man logo with the text that states “you are not logged in.” Click on the little red man and enter your login details that you created earlier. Things can be a little slow here, so be patient and only click the login logo (red man) once. If it doesn’t turn green in under one minute, try it again (this is unfortunately a long time bug with NMM but you’ll get there). Once you’re logged in, it’ll change to a green man.

How To Use Nexus Mod Manager - The pesky red man

The floodgates are now open! Head back to the website for the easiest way to acquire these mods. On any mod page, you’ll need to look for the option “Download With NMM.” It’s simply a case of clicking that on the mod of your choice and it’ll get sent to your installed Nexus Mod Manager. If that option is not there: Download the mod file > Navigate to the green plus sign on the top left in Nexus Mod Manager > and select “Add Mod From File.” 

How To Use Nexus Mod Manager - Importing mods the old school way

Once you’ve downloaded a few mods, you’ll see numbers generated in your categories list to know that they have arrived safe and sound. 

5. Understanding The Download

This section may seem a little patronising but in the case of Nexus Mod Manager, it can be a sneaky feature that catches a lot of people of out. Once you’re familiar with how everything works, you’ll likely be greedily looking for as many awesome mods as can fit on your PC (as I did). So when you’ve clicked “Download with NMM” a hundred times in the space of five minutes, odds are there’s going to be a bit of a queue from arrival in your library. 

How To Use Nexus Mod Manager - download manager

To check out this queue, simply navigate to the bottom of the Nexus Mod Manager screen, where you’ll find a “download manager” tab. Click that, and the window will expand to show your queued mod downloads and their download progression. This is a great thing to check on if you’re downloading a load of small mods amid a few massive ones. Of course, if the massive ones are coming first, that would explain why your 4K grass textures haven’t arrived in your categories yet.

Try Out KeenGamer’s Selection Of Top Mods

You may have noticed that we’re big fans of the modding community here at KeenGamer. As such, we covered a lot of content for it. If you’re just starting out here, a great place to continue on your journey for mod perfection is right here at KeenGamer! Go ahead and open up a couple of tabs with the following articles.

Happy modding!

1 Comment

  1. Avatar photo

    You explained how to get and use vortex not nexus mod manager

    Reply

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