Multi installation WoW Patches

[beyond-tec]

Heya :)

Got a little problem here.

Downloaded and installed the latest WoW Patch. I've installed it into my main directory of WoW. If I copy the patch to another WoW directory and try to install it again he checks my main version of WoW and pops up an error box that the patch is already installed.

Usually I copied my whole WoW folder to get the patch on every WoW copy.

any chance to tell the patch that he doesn't check the default directory from WoW so that I can install it on another wow copy?

[beyond-tec]

I've changed the keyfile in the registry where the position of my wow folder was saved.

it works now.

is there any chance to install the patch with a directory description?
i.e. with a commandline?

[beyond-tec]

for the german speaking people who are interested how you have to edit your registry to install the patch into your toon directorys just visit the following link:

Für die Leute, die Deutsch sprechen und wissen möchten wie man die Registrierung verändert um die Patches in die Toon Verzeichnisse zu installieren, besucht einfach meinen Blog, dort habe ich es ausführlich erklärt:

http://beyond-tec.blogspot.com/2007/10/multi-installation-von-patches.html

[beyond-tec]

Bah, I just fire up all 3 of my WoW machines on patch morning, and let them all patch at once. :)

yeah, but what if you got multiple installations of WoW on one machine?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Alternatively, you could patch your WoW install in your main folder and then run a directory sync utility to copy over only the changed files to the other installs.

A good free program for this is TreeComp. I've been using it for a couple of years now and, while it requires more manual intervention, it is very solid. And it's free as in beer. ;)

http://www.xs4all.nl/~lploeger/TreeComp3.htm

[beyond-tec]

Bah, I just fire up all 3 of my WoW machines on patch morning, and let them all patch at once. :)

yeah, but what if you got multiple installations of WoW on one machine?

You can't start them all at once and have them patch at the same time?

you can start the WoW sessions all at once - like multiboxing.
each session will start the download but before the patch will get installed he checks the version of WoW where he is going to install the patch.

problem is - he uses the default WoW directory which is configured in your system registry.

the first patch will work excellent, when he starts the patch for the first toon he checks the same wow directory again and pops up a message that the patch is already installed.

the patch will install itself only to the default wow directory which is set up in your registry.


@Ughmahedhurtz:
thx for the tool but I don't want to copy those large MPQ Files over and over again :)

[Majestic_Clown]

the best thing you can actually do to patch up is run each client on a patch day so it downloaded the downloader, cancel the download, copy the predownloaded patch files apart from the downloader into each dir and run each client so it launches the downloader.

This saves the haste of registry edits as the wow clients will do the writing for you.

[beyond-tec]

the best thing you can actually do to patch up is run each client on a patch day so it downloaded the downloader, cancel the download, copy the predownloaded patch files apart from the downloader into each dir and run each client so it launches the downloader.

This saves the haste of registry edits as the wow clients will do the writing for you.

still the same problem:

wow got an entry in the system registry
in this entry he tells the installer where he can find WoW

if the patch is started he only installs the patch to the directory which is set up in the registry.

so you can start the patch from everywhere and it doesn't need to stay in the WoW directory.

problem with that:
you can't install a patch into another directory as the directory which is set up in the registry. if you start the client, it downloads the patch to its directory, starts the patch to install it, asks the registry where to install and wants to install it to the wrong directory.

for example:

c:\warcraft1 is the first installation of your WoW
you copy the whole directory to
c:\warcraft2

you start both sessions of WoW. He downloads the patch twice, each patch in its own directory.

then you start the patch from c:\warcraft1. It asks the system registry where to find WoW and the registry says: c:\warcraft1.

It installs the patch.

then you start the patch in c:\warcraft2. It asks the system registry where to find WoW and the registry says: c:\warcraft1. He checks the warcraft dir and aborts the installation because the patch is already installed.

so you can't install the patch into c:\warcraft2 unless you change the registry.

this is why I asked for a commandline string which tells the patch where to install itself.

[Kopitar]

I download the patch on 1 client, copy the patch to the other 4 clients and run the patch individually 1 at a time from each of the 5 folders. I don't believe that there are any registry settings (can't tell at work atm) as i have just copied the wow folder from another system on my network (ie i never installed it from scratch on either system)

That's how i get around patch day...
BTW running 5 accounts on 2 systems, each in a separate folder/drive

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Copying the MPQ or other files that are actually patched is probably not as much data as you're thinking. And as slow as the patcher is, I think you'd probably be surprised at how fast it would copy over the patched files even if it were copying a few hundred megs of data files. Unless you're still running ATA33 drives...

[Djarid]

if you have installed wow each time then each client will patch normally however if like me (and presumably Beyond-tec) you just copied the directories then there will only be one entry in the registry and the patch will only path the instance that is in that location.

any chance someone with multiple installations can export their blizzard key? sanitised of course. just so I can see how multiple instances work?

atm I just have 3 reg files on my desktop and merge each one in turn, applying the patch

[kadaan]

Hmm. I copied my WoW folder to World of Warcraft2 to run a second instance, and they both patch just fine. Even if I patch one and don't start up the second one till the next day, it patches it just fine.

Only thing I can think of is I never use the launcher and start up wow directly, maybe the launcher is where the check is made?

[Djarid]

I now have three entries in the registry... one for each instance...

an interesting point is that the ACE updater looks at the WOW value to determine which instance of wow it will update... confused the hell out of me when I first started using it (was looking at my 3rd instance)

[Tonuss]

I download the patch on 1 client, copy the patch to the other 4 clients and run the patch individually 1 at a time from each of the 5 folders.
This is what I do, and I rarely have a problem with it.

[Blokus]

I have 3 WoW directories on my PC but they were all copied in from another computer. They all 3 update fine when I copy the patches to each of their respective directories.