---

note

Assuming you've completed the Pre-installation part, let's get on with the actual install!

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1. Make sure your Skyrim installation is clean. If you're not sure that it is clean — that's how to make it one (or just watch this video).

   tip

   🧼 Clean Skyrim install procedure:

   1. DELETE SKYRIM:
      • Find your game folder and delete everything;
      • Go to Steam and delete the game there.
   2. Press Win + R, paste %localappdata% in the small window that just opened, hit Enter, and in the newly opened Explorer window delete the folder named Skyrim Special Edition
   3. Go to 'Documents\My Games\' and delete Skyrim Special Edition folder there.
   4. Install the game via Steam as usual.

2. Start the game once. You'd need to do it through the Skyrim Launcher (settings there don't matter, we just need to get the game registred properly). When the Launcher starts, you'd see a popup like this:

   

   Click OK and then PLAY in Skyrim Launcher.

3. Download AE content. When you get to the main menu — the game would suggest you to download the AE content — click DOWNLOAD:

   
   danger

   DON'T MINIMIZE THE GAME!

   Wait till everything is downloaded and popups stop appearing.

   tip

   If you're not sure that everything downloaded properly (i.e. you accedentally closed the game while AE content was downloading) — do this:

   • Close the game and launch Skyrim from Steam again
   • Click Creations
   • Click [O] Options (at the bottom)
   • Click Download all owned Creation Club Creations

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1. Create a directory for Wabbajack. Create a directory at the root of one of your Solid State drives (such as D:\Wabbajack) where you'd like to install Wabbajack later on.

2. Create a directory for Licentia NEXT. Now, do the same for Licentia — i.e. D:\Licentia NEXT.

3. Make AV exceptions.

   warning

   Ensure you have set antivirus exceptions for:

   • Licentia folder (D:\Licentia NEXT)
   • Skyrim vanilla game folder (i.e. D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition)
   • Wabbajack folder (i.e. D:\Wabbajack)

   Otherwise, the installation WILL fail.

   Certain antivirus packages do not properly respect exceptions and cannot be fully disabled (Webroot and Bitdefender are prime examples of such behaviour). These tools must be uninstalled from your system.

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1. Get the Wabbajack app. Download latest Wabbajack.exe here and save it to Wabbajack folder we created earlier (i.e. D:\Wabbajack).

2. Start the Wabbajack app. Start the Wabbajack.exe we downloaded earlier, Wabbajack would download its assets and eventually open, just wait for a minute.

3. Login to Nexus within the Wabbajack app. On the main screen click the GEAR icon in the bottom left:

   

   Here in the top left corner, click Log in near Nexus Mods logo:

   

   A new window will open inside Wabbajack. You'd be directed to Nexus website, login there as usual and click Authorize when prompted. Login window will close by itself after authorization. In Wabbajack UI button for Log in will become light-pink with checkmark, indicating successful login.

   

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1. Now after you've successfully logged in, click Browse lists in the left menu of Wabbajack UI:

   

2. Select filters on the left — Skyrim Special Edition as a game (1), tick Show NSFW and Show Unofficial Lists (2), and type next in search bar (3). When you see Licentia NEXT — click on its card on the right (4):

   

3. In the newly opened window for Licentia NEXT, press Download & Install button in the bottom left:

   

   This will download Licentia's Wabbajack file in the background, which is basically an installation package.

4. After the Wabbajack file download is complete, you'll see this screen (it's going to appear automatically).

   

   Two things to be aware of here:

   • You can note that Wabbjack reports modlist version as 0.0.1.0 — once again, it's a bug in Wabbajack version 4.0+ and we can't do anything about it :feelsgood: — the list is actually the correct version!
   • Don't worry about the error at the bottom, it is normal and will be fixed in the next step.

5. In this window, select the directory we created for Licentia (1), downloads folder would be populated automatically (2) (you can change where downloads would be stored if you want, i.e. on another, slower drive), and hit Install button (3):

   

   This would begin the actual download and installation of the list.

   You'd see a progress bar at the top, and some installation stats at the bottom.

   note

   Depending on your system specs, the download and installation processes can take a long time.

   warning

   There are many different scenarios where Wabbajack would produce an error, that's going to look something like this (this example is for another list for another game, but you get the idea):

   

   On the left side of this window there's an error box that allows you to open full Wabbajack log file, which is useful for troubleshooting.

   On the right side you'd see a Log Viewer that usually says something like Failed to download X or Failed to install X.

   danger

   DON'T USE Retry button in the bottom right corner!!!

   tip

   General advice — re-run Wabbajack completely before seeking assistance. Wabbajack will only download and reinstall the minimum necessary to get the modlist working.

   You can find most common Wabbajack issues below (check Logs tab):

   Issue	Solution
   Various files beginning with cc and ending with esl or esm failed to download	You did not purchase the $20 upgrade to Skyrim, and this is not negotiable. Purchase it, verify it, delete it and re-download it if necessary, and try again.
   Could not download X	Some Internet providers have difficulty accessing the servers hosting the list's files. Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) with a terminus set to the United States. Free options include ProtonVPN and Cloudflare WARP. If a download gets interrupted, delete all corrupt local copies before trying again.
   Wabbajack could not find my game folder	Licentia NEXT will not work with a GOG or pirated game version. If you own the game on Steam — ensure you are not running Wabbajack as an Administrator. Asking for help with pirated copies of the game will get you banned from Discord Support.

6. When you'd see this at the top of Wabbajack — it means your installation is complete!

   

   You can close Wabbajack now and proceed to the next step.