New computer - WoW re-install question

[Maxie Man]

Hello,

When I buy my new computer, do I need to get my original CD's out of the WoW boxes (original game plus TBC) and install them from scratch? Also, what about all of the updates... will Blizzard automatically look for the program files currently on my computer, figure out which updates I need and then automatically begin downloading them? How long do you think the entire process will take based on a high speed INet connection (mine is 7 Mbps down and 500 kbps up).

Oh, and should I just install the original WoW disks first and do all the updates for that and then install TBC disks and then update from then on?

Thanks a bunch.

Max.

[Tunga]

Easiest way to is just to keep the patches from your current WoW folder. Burn them to a DVD or copy over network as you prefer. They're all quite obviously named in the install folder. Then install normal WoW, then installed TBC (which saves you having to patch anything pre 2.0) and then run the patches from there. If you don't keep them then you can still do this and once you've installed TBC just run the client and it will automatically patch to the correct version. You may need to run the client a few times but eventually it'll finish patching and let you login :) .

[ChaosSaber]

Even if you don't have the patches saved, you can just copy over your entire WoW directory from one computer to the other. You need to run the installer first but then you can just paste files from one computer right overtop of the files on the new computer and presto! instant patch. Just don't copy the WTF directory since it holds configuration data for the source computer that could screw things up when you load it on the new computer.

[tylrdiablos]

A friend of mine was having problems with the WoW Patch that included the BrewFest stuff.
After trying to help him over MSN and the phone I decided to go round to his and check out the problem myself.

I tried everything from running Blizzards own Repair executable to removing all the old patches and their downloaders and reinstalling them.
Nothing worked.

So I burned my WoW install folder(s) onto two DVD's.

Went back to his house and deleted his WoW directory and put mine there inplace of his.

It worked perfectly.

WoW doesn't write anything to the Windows Registry during install and never reads anything from it.
The only problem we had was with the Auctioneer mod. We had to delete and reinstall that but everything else was fine.

I recommend putting your WoW install onto backup DVD's. You'd be surprised how much you can delete in the WoW folders.
(Old patches, old patch downloaders, defunct AddOns and so on.)

Just remember that installing WoW and getting it patched to the latest version can take 4-6 hours on most modern spec machines.
(Even with decent internet connections because it's all down to the server hosting the file.)

[Tunga]

WoW doesn't write anything to the Windows Registry during install and never reads anything from it.This isn't actually true. It's just that, as with most games, you don't need the registry keys there for the game to work. They're mainly used so that Windows knows that it is installed and for finding the install location if you run patches from random locations.
For two examples:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE-> Blizzard Entertainment -> World of Warcraft HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE-> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Uninstaller -> World of Warcraft