Shared WTF/Saved Variables on Vista

[zanthor]

Utilizing the MKLINK command of Windows Vista you can make ALL your wow accounts use the SAME configuration. Depending on how detailed you want to do this, you can do this on a per-add-on basis or globally by sharing the entire WTF\Account\[Accountname] folder between accounts.

Lets assume you know where your WoW folder is and want to share all settings between two characters.

Open a command prompt (Windows-R, CMD.EXE, OK) and change directory to your WoW folder. (CD "\program files\world of warcraft\wtf\account")

If you type DIR and press enter you will see that there are folders for each account name...

ACCOUNT1
ACCOUNT2

Make a backup of these folders before proceeding...

Delete ACCOUNT2.

Then create a SimLink as follows:
mklink /d ACCOUNT2 ACCOUNT1

This creates a symbolic link to account1 so when WoW tries to add files to this folder, they get created in Account1. They also will read files from there, creating a single shared folder for all your accounts.

You can take this to a more granular level if you wanted... for example you want to share all your macro's between accounts... but want separate saved variables and settings... Just create the simlink for the file instead of the directory.

[Xzin]

Just for the record, linux has supported this for a lonnnnnng time.

[zanthor]

Just for the record, linux has supported this for a lonnnnnng time.

Yup, and it's something I've wished for for as long as WoW's had multiple accounts... and when I found out Vista supported it I /happydanced.

I'll be creating a shell'd out 2nd install of WoW now, for custom graphic settings and such for my child systems.

[Xzin]

Can't you just copy the files over and rename the folders though? What advantages does this provide that I may be missing?

[inire]

Shared concurrent changes? i'm guessing that the link carries through the change on the original file. 'least thats the way it work on UNIX. Not sure of the full functionality of the Vista version.