If World of Warcraft is freezing, crashing or returning errors during play, it is sometimes helpful to run the game using OpenGL, with no sound or in window mode in order to troubleshoot the issue. Below you will find instructions on how to configure your game client to run using these three modes.
Locating the game folder
We will first need to find the folder where World of Warcraft is installed, unless you have specified that the game should be installed to a certain location, the default installation locations are:
Windows XP: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft
Windows Vista or 7: C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft
To find your game folder in Windows XP:
- Right-click the game shortcut on your desktop or Windows start menu and left-click Properties
- Click the Find Target... button on the window that has appeared
To find your game folder in Windows Vista or 7:
- Right-click the game shortcut on your desktop or Windows start menu and left-click Open file location
Finding and preparing the World of Warcraft (Wow.exe) file
To run the game using the three different modes, it is good practice to create a shortcut to the Wow(.exe)game file, this will ensure that the file itself is not damaged accidently.
Creating a shortcut to the Wow file:
- When in the game folder, locate the file called Wow (it will have the World of Warcraft 'W' logo)
- Left-click the file and right-click Create Shortcut
- [ XP users ] Right-click the new Shortcut to Wow file and left-click Properties
- [ Vista users ] Right-click the new Wow - Shortcut file and left-click Properties
- You should now be on a Shortcut tab of a new window, with a Target field in the top half of the window
Testing the game using OpenGL, no sound and windowed mode
We can now modify the Target field to test the game using our desired option, by adding a 'flag' to the end of the text:
- To test using OpenGL, use the -opengl flag
- To test using no sound, use the -nosound flag
- To test the game in a window, use the -windowed flag
For example, if your Target field reads "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe", modify the Target field to "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -opengl and then click OK. Launching the game using the modified WoW shortcut file will load the game using OpenGL.
Similarly, to play with no sound:
"C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -> "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -nosound
And, to test the game in a window:
"C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -> "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -windowed
You can re-edit the shortcut by removing one flag and replacing it with another. You can also use a combination of flags, so for example, to run the game in OpenGL and with no sound:
"C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -> "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -opengl -nosound
To launch the game normally, without any of the changes made above, simply click the World of Warcraft game icon that you normally use to play the game.
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