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Is it still possible to put the whole WoW folder on an external hard drive an just execute the .exe file (on the external drive itself) since the Blizzard Launcher came out (where all games are started from)? Or will it force me to first install/download the Blizzard Launcher on the computer?

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  • According to this post, it is possible.
    – Jonathan Drapeau
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 14:00
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    Idle curiosity: why do you want to do this?
    – Michael McGriff
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 14:11
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    @MichaelMcGriff obviously I can't speak for OP but three valid reasons I can think of are a) if you didn't have enough space on your internal drive you might want to do this, b) if it was more convenient for you to carry the drive around rather than download the game each time (maybe you often borrow computers), and c) if you had a slow or capped internet connection and (again) didn't want to download the game each time.
    – strugee
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 21:02
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    and, as someone mentioned in a comment below, your external drive might be faster than your internal drive. unlikely, but possible.
    – strugee
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 21:03
  • @strugee those reasons seem logical. I guess they never occurred to me as I was never in any of those situations back when I played WoW.
    – Michael McGriff
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 21:05

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Yes it will be possible to do this, the easiest way to do it would be to simply (re)install World of Warcraft making sure to opt for the "advanced" option rather than typical install. This will let you pick an install directory.

At that point you will be able to browse to the external hard drive and create a new folder called "WoW" and install!

I run all of my steam games from an external SSD, it is quite possible to achieve.

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    @RandomDisplayName The only factor to account for is the speed of the external HD and what kind of link it has with your PC (usb 2, 3 or eSata). The main thing affected by this will be the loading times.
    – Jonathan Drapeau
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 13:56
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    In the battle.net launcher app is a setting to move the wow folder, no need to reinstall it.
    – Raidri
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 15:37
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    You can actually just copy the folder in windows explorer. I've always done this for my copy of wow.
    – corsiKa
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 15:58
  • @corsiKa: Blizzard Launcher/Updater won't like that
    – Mooing Duck
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 20:35
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    Sure it does. You just tell it where you moved it to. But you only need the updater when you actually do updates, and you can't log in without the new update. So it knows where to find its own updater anyway. I always go straight to the client, not the launcher.
    – corsiKa
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 22:11

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