I treated 1946 as it was originally intended and installed it as an add on over Forgotten Battles.
It has worked fine with no problems that some others seemed to encounter.
However, with 4.09 imminent I thought I would do a clean install of 1946, retaining my original (the folder is still named Forgotten Battles) that has other various add-ons.
When I inserted the 1946 disc it did not give me the option to install, just Uninstall, Read Me and Exit.
I have read that others have more then one copy of the game installed so it is obviously possible, but how can it be done?

Try changing the name of your IL-2 folder and then try the new install.

Aviar

Open your registry and delete any entries for il2. Il2 does not need these to run but once you delete them then the disc will offer the install option again.


P.S. 1946 was never meant to be installed on top of forgotten battles, it is completely standalone and has a different default install path for this reason.

Aviar - tried re-naming that did not work, the Install option is still greyed out.
Ufuru - apologies for my ignorance but where do I find the registry to delete the IL2 files?

Aviar, I found an August forum entry where you overcame this problem, how did you do it?
I have tried renaming the folder , putting a minus in front of it and still cannot install a second copy.
Advice from other forums is to delete all registry entries of IL2 as this will allow the game to reinstall. Other advice is unless you know what you are doing don't touch the registry.
I don't know how to access the registry so I thought I would tackle it from another angle.
I copied the entire IL2 FB folder and renamed it Modded IL2 FB.
I then removed the Mods folder from the original and started the game, The splash screen came up in Russian, the game loaded but then froze and I was unable to access it. I replaced the Mods folder and its working again.
I then tried renaming the Mods folder but the outcome was the same.
Is there anyway I can get the original to work as an un-modded version without un-installing it?
I don't have a Files Folder so that's not a problem.

Basically, rename or move the original folder, then goto control panel, add remove programs and uninstall 1946 from there.

It will not remove the renamed/moved folder, as it does not know where it's at... it may produce some errors regarding that situation, but it should successfully uninstall...

After this, you should be able to run the install from the DVD.

Thanks FT, I shall try this tomorrow.

I never messed with registry.
When I installed from DVD (the first time) I just made a backup copy of that (clean) and stored it in a zip.
Then, I just unzip that backup, make a folder with a proper name, and voilà!
Of course I have different shortcuts on the desktop to each exe.

Its easy, i just did it yesterday.

Go to the IL2 folder, and delete the file called registration.exe

then put in the il2 cd and hit install when it autoloads. then it will install a second copy.
(remember to rename the first il2 folder though.)

if you get a window saying something about deleting previous something or other, click yes. it wont delete your previous version.

let me know how it works

All done using FT's method. Thanks all for the advice guys.
Ya just gotta love this community, it never fails with the helping hand.