Quote Originally Posted by 'Hachoo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=195424#post1 95424
Quote Originally Posted by 'Taliesin',index.php?page=Thread&postID=195385#pos t195385
Since moving to Vista 64, the Blizzard updater has problems finding my WoW folder, since it needs to exist in a public space. The quick answer was to just manually download the patch then update that way. Haven't had any problems since then, even with symlinked folders.

I just symlink Cache, Data, Interface, and Screenshots (not necessary for this one, but personal preference). After patching the main folder, I just copy and paste the files directly under the WoW folder (not subfolders) to all the slave directories. No hiccups so far.
The solution to this is to run wow.exe as administrator for the copy you want to be "master". IE if you made a C:\wow1 folder, you'd go into the C:\Wow1 folder, then right click wow.exe and click "Run as Administrator" - this will now tell the windows registry where your WoW copy is. Now you can run the launcher or whatnot and it will find the update location automatically.
It's been a while now, so I can't recall if I had tried that already. Next time I need to patch, I'll try to remember to do this again. Honestly, I still prefer patching manually because the Blizz downloader always seems to take me forever even though all the ports are open. 750 MB in just 20 mins from filefront? I don't think I've ever even remotely gotten close to those download speeds from Blizz even in between patch releases.

I also save all the patches in a separate folder for any time I find I need to re-install or want to update my laptop (shared directory) without downloading more than once.