Quote Originally Posted by 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.
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.