So I’ve decided to write a guide, to help get some more peole playing this great game, without paying the ridiculous $15.00 fee per month. Before this really begins though, I should mention a few things:
This is a guide on how to play on a PRIVATE SERVER.
You won’t be playing with all your friends who play retail, so that just means you should get them to switch over to this method as well!
This guide will have you connecet to the servers run by Tru-WoW.
They are strictly “BlizzLike” which means everything (drop rates, experience) is how it is in retail, everything is the same as retail (with the exception of the few bugs, but the developers are working diligently on them!)
Tru-WoW is still running The Burning Crusade.
The Wrath of the Lich King will eventually be supported, when it’s ready for private servers, they’d rather wait a few months to release it, in working order, rather than release it full of nasty bugs.
And now I’m just going to dive right in to the step-by-step of things…
1. First off, you will need to install BOTH the original WoW client, and The Burning Crusade client.
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft – The Burning Crusade
(And yes, I’m aware blizzard has an combination downloader, but that is for version 3 of the game, which is currently s till unsupported on most private servers.)
2. Once you download the files above, run them both, it will open a Blizzard Downloader (one for each.) It’s going to ask you where you want to save the files to, I just recommend your desktop, so you can find them faster when the time comes. It will take a couple of hours to finish. And generally The Burning Crusade will finish first (it will automatically launch the installer, saying that the original WoW client is required first, close out of it.) This means you have to wait for them BOTH to finish before you can really proceed any further. (Now might be a good time to go do something productive.) Or in the meantime, you could always start downloading the patches in step 5, and create your account in step 6.
3. After both downloads finish, you will have to open the original WoW folder that the downloader created, usually called “WoW-2.3.0.7561-enUS” and from there run the “Installer.exe” let it run, and finish installing.
4. After the original WoW client installs, it’s time to install The Burning Crusade expansion, so go into the folder named “WoW-BurningCrusade-enUS-Full-Installer” and run the “Installer.exe” from there too, and let it finish installing.
5. Next you’re going to have to patch your client to version 2.4.3, which can be a pain in the ass finding the correct patches to apply. I’ve made it easy for you, simply download and install (IN ORDER) the following patches. AFTER YOU APPLY EACH PATCH, THE WOW LAUNCHER WILL SHOW UP, AND TRY TO AUTO-UPDATE TO V.3.0 – MAKE SURE YOU CANCEL IT, DO NOT LET IT UPDATE TO 3.0!!!
2.4.0 (923.74 MB)
2.4.1 (04.88 MB)
2.4.2 (15.07 MB)
2.4.3 (27.27 MB)
None of these patches are hosted on this server, they are all provided by FileFront, if for some reason any of the downloads above are not working, please use the list of patch mirrors at WoWWiki.
6. Now it’s time to create your account, please click here to create an account, be sure to create your account as an “Expansion” account type, this is what lets you play The Burning Crusade, instead of just the original WoW game. Please allow up to 10-20 minutes for your account to be physically created on the servers.
7. Download my pre-made realmlist.wtf file (right click it, and “Save Link As…”) and place it in your WoW directory, usually set to
C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft
And choose to OVERWRITE the existing file.
Or if for some reason you are paranoid, and do not want to download my file, feel free to browse to your WoW directory, open up the existing realmlist.wtf file, and change it to ONLY say
set realmlist truwowonline.com
And save it. NOTE: if your on Vista, it is way less stressful to simply download and copy the file I provided above, however to do so, you will have to agree to the User Account Control popup.
8. Run Wow.exe (be sure NOT to run Launcher.exe, this will patch the game to 3.x.x, and that’s bad) and you should then be able to log in with the username and password you created in step 5. If you’re feeling tech-savvy, make a shortcut to Wow.exe on your desktop, and delete the old shortcut there (which pointed to Launcher.exe)
9. Select your realm, Darkwolf for PvP, or Frostmane for PvE, I however do recommend Frostmane if you are new to private servers, you can always at a later date just create a PvP character, no loss in time really, since it’s FREE.
10. Create a character, and enter the World of Warcraft, for free! Enjoy!
wow 2.4.3 patch download | Digg hot tags on November 19th, 2008 at 5:02 PM says:
[...] Vote Corey DeGrandchamp » Guide: Play World of Warcraft FREE [...]
patriot000 on December 2nd, 2008 at 2:45 PM says:
oooooo
[Reply]
Anonymous Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 11:49 PM
@patriot000, About that User Account Control Pop-up, you know you can turn UAC off in the control panel on Vista, right? Just type UAC in the search bar inside the Control Panel window and click the only result (Turn UAC on or off) and if you have an administrator account, you can just select to turn it off… I did that day one- That (UAC) gets VERY annoying…
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Anonymous Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 11:49 PM
@, That was to the guy who made the site, not patriot… sorry about that.
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Corey Reply:
July 30th, 2009 at 7:11 AM
@,
yeah you can turn it off, but the majority of users don’t have it turned off, and some might not want to.
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wow 2.4.2 patch | Digg hot tags on December 19th, 2008 at 10:36 PM says:
[...] Vote Guide: Play World of Warcraft FREE [...]
rony on December 25th, 2008 at 5:24 AM says:
thanks
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Corey Reply:
December 26th, 2008 at 10:01 AM
No problem man, tell your friends about this guide.
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rony on January 1st, 2009 at 9:20 PM says:
hey my friend try to do it but is says new patch required
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Corey Reply:
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:48 PM
should only need 2.4.3 or whatever, make sure you’re changing your realmlist.wtf file to the tru-wow servers. It should work fine! Try the tru-wow.com forums for more help
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Corey Reply:
March 4th, 2009 at 4:22 PM
@rony, Also make sure he’s running Wow.exe and not Launcher.exe!
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Griff on January 2nd, 2009 at 3:35 AM says:
Is this for MAC only? Or is this for PC too?
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Corey Reply:
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:48 PM
This is for PC.
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Znakomka on January 9th, 2009 at 2:25 PM says:
Thanks for sharing your work with us! Your theme is just awesome!
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Tanner on January 9th, 2009 at 5:23 PM says:
i play here and it kick some serious ass every one c eom and join (PLAY HORDE ON DARKWOLF, alli is for pussy as with pve)
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Corey on January 10th, 2009 at 1:21 AM says:
I play Alliance and PvE, and I’m suggesting PvE to new users who’ve never played before. Especailly since Darkwolf has its… problems right now.
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Manga on January 15th, 2009 at 8:20 AM says:
[...]Thanks for sharing your work with us! Your theme is just awesome![...]
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Manga on January 15th, 2009 at 8:40 AM says:
Thanks for sharing your work with us! Your theme is just awesome!
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anyaa on January 26th, 2009 at 5:10 PM says:
Click here to Download the path WoW:
path 2.3.0-2.3.2 http://depositfiles.com/files/1jjtxn17y
path 2.3.3-2.4.0 http://depositfiles.com/files/50c9iv0do
path 2.4.3-3.0.2 http://depositfiles.com/files/n2r1p8zto
addons http://depositfiles.com/files/i77aoikxj
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Corey on January 28th, 2009 at 11:09 AM says:
Don’t download those patches… I link to all the patches you need. Those are potentially viruses. Also don’t upgrade past 2.4.3, it will render your WoW install useless on Tru-WoW
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ohhhh shit on February 15th, 2009 at 1:26 PM says:
wowlegendary.com
instant 70 . Vote for weapons and more just change ur realmlist. patch 3.0.9
doneta for gm and admin and much more just type http://www.wowlegendary.com
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Robert Williams on February 21st, 2009 at 2:39 AM says:
Keep working, great job!
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John Johnson on February 22nd, 2009 at 5:23 AM says:
Thanks !! Very helpful post!
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As400 Mike on February 22nd, 2009 at 6:32 AM says:
Does anyone know where I can find more information about this?
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Corey on February 22nd, 2009 at 8:00 PM says:
http://www.tru-wow.com should have more info, join their forums as well. its the best private server there is.
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Anonymous on March 9th, 2009 at 9:31 AM says:
i always get an error. it says that i have a c++ problem or something.
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Corey Reply:
March 11th, 2009 at 9:58 AM
That’s strange. It’s got to have something to do with your PC then. I’ve had countless people follow these steps without any trouble. Try googling for “WoW C++ error” or something similar.
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pannekoek on March 13th, 2009 at 4:45 AM says:
nice quide;)
i’m playing for over a week now and i put the C:/programfiles/worldofwarcraft on my external hard disc. all my friends just coppied and pasted it and now they all have the game to. so my question is would it be possible to download the c:programfilles/wow ???? beacause i think that that would be a lot easyer
but anyway thnx dude
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Corey Reply:
March 13th, 2009 at 8:20 AM
@pannekoek,
yes that works most of the time, but some people do run into problems with that method every now and then.
The way I have listed is generally a sure-fire way (as long as you know what you’re doing) to get it to work. Plus, copying the WoW directory can be screwy with caches and settings at times. Best way to remedy that is to NOT copy your Cache folder to your friends computers though.
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Alex on May 21st, 2009 at 2:52 PM says:
I’ve done everything you said,EVERYTHING,and when I go to WoW to log in it says ”Disconnected from the server”.It’s like my tru-wow account doesn’t exist,please help.Btw i have 2.4.3 patch as you said.
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Corey Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 3:03 PM
@Alex,
It says disconnected from server?
Perhaps your Tru-Wow account is banned?
I’d post on their forums at http://www.tru-wow.com and let them know the issue you’re facing.
When you try to log in, you see the burning crusade login screen (green portal) not the WoTLK login screen (blue) correct?
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KrisBelucci on June 2nd, 2009 at 10:47 PM says:
da best. Keep it going! Thank you
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AndrewBoldman on June 4th, 2009 at 3:40 PM says:
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting.
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justin on July 6th, 2009 at 4:49 PM says:
i was wondering if u can use questhelper.. Its a addon i love and was wondering how to be able to use it or just do it the same way as the real game.
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Corey DeGrandchamp Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 7:56 PM
@justin,
yes you can, just put it on the addons folder like any normal addon, just be sure its the version of QuestHelper to match the version of WoW
I actaully use that addon when I play, great addon!
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Anonymous Reply:
July 7th, 2009 at 8:39 AM
@Corey DeGrandchamp, i also cant figure out were to put the realm list thing.. does it matter where i put it once i open up folder…and if i save it to my desktop should it be in the folder wow-2.3.0.7561-enUS
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Anonymous on July 6th, 2009 at 8:43 PM says:
i also cant figure out were to put the realm list thing.. does it matter where i put it once i open up folder…and if i save it to my desktop should it be in the folder wow-2.3.0.7561-enUS
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Corey Reply:
July 30th, 2009 at 7:11 AM
@,
the realmlist.wtf file needs to go in
C:/Program Files/World of Warcraft
AFTER it’s installed completely.
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joe valentine on August 1st, 2009 at 2:45 AM says:
your server can not be found, what can i do, does this work on other survers
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Corey DeGrandchamp Reply:
August 1st, 2009 at 8:25 AM
@joe valentine,
what server?
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Anonymous on October 25th, 2009 at 8:55 AM says:
the burning crusade instaler wont work. Do I realy need it?
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Anonymous on January 6th, 2010 at 8:30 PM says:
It wont let me make an account cause i clicked on the part where it says click here to create an account (step 6)
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