Install

1. Install Skyrim Special Edition through Steam and start it once from Steam, so it writes its settings folder. TODO confirm whether the list needs this.
2. Set the game language to English. In Steam, open the game's Properties, then Language. The list is built on the English game files, and Wabbajack checks the files it copies from your game.
3. Stop Steam updating the game on its own. In the game's Properties, under Updates, choose to update only when you launch it. The list runs from its own copy of the game, but an update can still change the Creation Club files in step 2.
4. Turn the Steam overlay off for the game (Properties, General). It can conflict with the list's interface and controller handling.
5. Install the runtimes: the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x64), and the .NET Desktop Runtime that Wabbajack asks for. Get both from Microsoft's own site. TODO: the exact .NET version the current Wabbajack needs.
6. Set a fixed pagefile. Skyrim with this many mods can need more memory than a PC has free, and Windows' pagefile covers the gap; when it is too small the game closes without a message. In Windows, search for Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows, open Advanced, then Virtual memory, Change. Untick automatic management, choose your fastest drive, set a custom size of TODO GB for both the initial and maximum size, press Set, then OK, and restart the PC.
7. Pick a folder for the list on a fast drive (an SSD), with a short path and outside Program Files, for example D:\Njordlinger. Pick a second folder for the downloads. Don't use a USB drive.
8. If your antivirus removes Wabbajack or a file from the install folder, add the Wabbajack folder and the install folder as exclusions and run the install again. TODO confirm this is worth saying.

The list loads four Creation Club plugins: Fishing, Rare Curios, Saints and Seducers, and Survival Mode. Steam now bundles these free files with the game, but its copy of Rare Curios is not byte-for-byte the copy you get from the game's own Creations menu, so a Wabbajack install that checks the Creations copy refuses the Steam one.

If Wabbajack stops with an error naming ccbgssse037-curios, swap Steam's copy for the menu's copy:

1. Open the game's Data folder in your Steam library (in Steam: right-click the game, Manage, Browse local files, then Data).
2. Delete the two Rare Curios files there: ccbgssse037-curios.esl and ccbgssse037-curios.bsa.
3. Start the game from Steam (this once), and pick Creations on the main menu.
4. Find Rare Curios and download it. Stay in the game window until it finishes: switching away can leave the download incomplete.
5. Accept the message about the load order, quit the game, and run the Wabbajack install again.

Don't use Steam's Verify integrity of game files afterwards: it puts Steam's copy back and undoes the swap.

1. Download Wabbajack from its official site, wabbajack.org, and put it in its own folder.
2. Open Wabbajack and sign in to Nexus Mods when it asks.
3. Choose Njordlinger: TODO from Wabbajack's modlist gallery, or by opening the .wabbajack file from the download link here.
4. Set the install folder and the downloads folder you picked in step 1.
5. Start the install and leave it running. With Nexus Premium it downloads every file on its own; without Premium it opens each Nexus page for you to click.
6. When Wabbajack reports that it finished, open the install folder and run ModOrganizer.exe from it.

• The list is a portable Mod Organizer 2 2.5.2 instance: everything it needs lives in the install folder, and nothing is written to your Steam game folder.
• The game itself runs from the list's Stock Game folder, a copy of Skyrim 1.5.97 kept with the list, so a Steam update to your own game cannot break it.
• The left pane is grouped by separators, from base and engine fixes at the top to patches and generated output at the bottom. The mod list on this site follows the same order, and the plugin list shows the right pane's order.
• Profiles keep their own save games and their own game settings files.

When this is done, go on to first launch.

What the version number tells you. Njordlinger's versions have three parts, for example 1.4.2. TODO: the policy, for the author to confirm or change. A suggested reading:

Every changelog entry says whether it is save-safe.

How to update. Run Wabbajack again, pick the new version, and point it at the same install folder and downloads folder. It changes only what changed. Make a copy of your saves first: they are in the profile's saves folder. TODO confirm the steps once the first update has been made.

Keeping mods you added yourself. An update removes every mod in the install folder that is not part of the list. To keep one, rename it in Mod Organizer 2's left pane so its name starts with [NoDelete], for example [NoDelete] My Presets; Wabbajack leaves those alone. The same goes for files you want to keep that the game wrote into the Overwrite folder: make a new mod from them and give it the prefix. Your own mods are yours to support: if a problem appears, turn them off before reporting it.