I want to point Vortex mod manager to a different game location, but it won't listen

[nightmarevoid]

For some context, I've been playing Skyrim SE using the windows store version because I get it free with gamepass. This version is too locked down to use mods like SKSE, so I've been going without them. Thing is, I really want to get silly, and that means SKSE.

 

I "downloaded" Skyrim Anniversary edition 1.642 and clicked on the option to manually point the game to a different install location. This worked (supposedly). Then I reinstalled all of my mods. This did not work, as files were being deleted left and right, and when the game started things were clearly broken. Yes, I was also launching using SKSE64. When I clicked on the mods option in the game itself it would not let me enable any of the mods I installed except for Diverse Dragons. Vortex was also throwing a fit about the included files that came with anniversary edition. Finally, when I started the game using the button in Vortex to do so, it started up the version from the microsoft store. I think this is why I wasn't able to mod the new version of the game; Vortex was still somehow attached to the MS store version.

 

So, how can I point Vortex to mod a separate install of the game? Thanks for the help.