Hello again. Right, I want to do correctly something which I managed to muck up last time when I did it for myself. I'm building a machine for a friend. She currently has WoW installed on an old machine (and on a laptop which she uses most of the time). The aim is to install WoW on the new build. When I tried it for myself before by just copying the folders, it worked except for the update installer; eventually, I just clean re-installed and had to install all the updates again. I suspect I failed to get all of the necessary files copied. Is there an easy way (partly as she will be doing the transfer herself and isn't too confident about computers) to just copy across without re-installing and downloading again all the updates? Thanks in advance for any help
u will need to re-install the game is the new build a different OS to original ? you may be able to copy over the files after you installed but before updating, then when you launch update it wil already be done. you cant just copy all the files and expect it to work im afriad as your missing lots of registry entries etc in your new OS.
Bluntly, no, there isn't. As adam_bagpuss says, without the relevant registry entries, the game can't be considered 'installed' so much as just dumped on the computer, even if the operating systems are the same. If they are, the partial-installation-copy-and-paste-continue-installation might work, but if they aren't it definitely won't. Personally, I'd just reinstall the game using the web installer, or the disc (which would be considerably faster), which is the only way to be sure it's done properly. AFAIK, the only games that can be more or less copied from computer to computer are Steam games.
Also, when you come to install the later patches (which I doubt will be on the discs), there are a few legit sites around that provide direct downloads as Blizzards installer can sometimes slow down on these parts.
I've moved my WoW install from XP to Win7 32bit and then Win7 32bit to Win7 64bit without reinstalling either time. I just ran the Launcher.exe, created a shortcut to it, etc, and it worked fine each time. Moving to 64bit I had to google up some registry entries to get it to work right, because of the WOW6432 stuff in 64bit.
thanks all. It's likely that it will move from XP to W7 32bit. My mate will have the disc I think so, for simplicity's sake, I might just recommend that she re-installs and downloads. Ljs, I'll have to find those sites as I remember re-downloading the patches took ages for me when I did it. Cheers.
I always just copy the folder. Never had any problems with updates. Doesn't seem to actually need any registry settings.
Last time I did this, I copied folder over, and it worked fine... until WOTLK came out, and then when I installed that, it all went horribly wrong. Next time I'll just re-install.
In all the years of playing WoW and with the many many upgrades and rebuilds, I have only installed the game once....and that was the 1st time. My wifes machine has never had it installed. Just copy the folder across to the new machine/build. The only issue you MAY have is with the update folder as it is in a different place from XP, Vista and Win7. If this is the case (where you download an update but then it wont find the game/update) just move the update files to the correct location. I think it is in Users/Public if my memory serves correctly.
All you need to do is copy the folder across to the new location and then run Launcher.exe as an administrator. That'll add the correct registry entries and allow the updater to run properly.
I was running Classic/BC on XP, and then moved to Win7 before WotLK. It installed fine for me. Guess I was just lucky. To the OP, it probably just be easier to do the client download from the website after the reinstall as you say, since there are obviously a number of people copying the folder didn't work out for eg its not an anomaly, its around half of the respondents!
Can't you just reinstall from scratch and then copy over the interface and wtf folders. These contain all the data for the account/config and player settings/mods/options/ etc...? That all I usually do. And as for patching - My current wow directory has all the patches in it I have ever downloaded saved so I just backup that lot.
Try just copying the folder first, you should be ok but if not, the client downloader will be your next best idea but remember it will still need a load of updates as it is never the full latest version. It took my mate a good couple of hours to download the client and then a couple more for the updates apparently. Good luck
You can copy all the saved variables across but you need to reinstall the game if you want it to work properly. It will still work if you just copy the folder but if you need to change any of the in-game settings these won't be saved when you exit WoW. So its best to just reinstall and get it out of the way.
It works perfectly well if you just copy the folders across, the only registry entries that WoW creates can be recreated by starting 'Launcher.exe' in administrator mode. There's no need to reinstall it.
Unlike most games, WoW plays nicely with copying the folder. Its launcher recreates any necessary registry entries when executed on a system where the entries are missing, as far as I know. Would be a nightmare otherwise, given the installation size and the time it takes. I doubt that. WoW stores all in-game and addon settings in the WTF folder within the game's main directory.
It does, I orginally installed WoW years ago when I was running XP. Since then i've moved to Vista and then Windows 7 and have reinstalled each operating system numerous times. Hasn't had any effect on my WoW install which has continued to work fine throughout as long as I recreate the registry entries each time.
