The Wow Blog

How to Install WoW Addons

by Erik

I thought I would add a little post here about how to install add ons, since I have a few friends who have managed to do this incorrectly.

Most addons are downloaded as a “zip” file, which decreases the actual file size so it takes less time to download. You must then “extract” it using a compression tool such as Winzip, WinRAR, or if you have Windows XP you can use the built-in tool. When you extract the files you will be prompted for the location you want them to go to. You will need to know where your World of Warcraft program is installed in order to pick this location correctly. Mine is the default location for Windows, which is “C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft”. Yours may be different, but you can easily determine where it is located by finding the shortcut (icon) you use to launch WoW. Right-click on the shortcut, and choose properties. Look for the “target”; this is the location of your World of Warcraft files. (Ignore the “launcher.exe”; this is the name of the file, and you just need the path.)

Now that you have the location of the WoW program, you need to look for the sub-folders. The first sub-folder is “Interface”. Be careful; I have seen some installs with “1interface” as well, so be careful to choose the correct one. In the Interface folder there will be a folder named ”AddOns”. This is the folder into which you want to extract your downloaded Addon. If it was packaged correctly, it will install a new folder with a name that should be something similar to the Addon name. If you are installing an update to an Addon that you already have, you will likely be prompted to overwrite the existing one, to which you should say “Yes”, of course.

Hope that helps!

 P.S. Valdesta mentions in a comment below (everyone should read this!) that we must be careful when picking addons. Exe files, as well as .bat and .com files, can actually be keyloggers or something else we don’t want. Be sure that the add on you are adding is one from a reputable source! Thanks for bringing this up, Valdesta; we can never be too secure with our computers.