Guild Wars 2

I’m not anywhere near new to technology, as I am majoring in Computer Science at College right now. However, one thing I never learned was playing games straight from the flash drive (without having to install them to the PC I was playing on…). How can I manage to play straight from the flash drive? (It’s a 3.0 USB 32GB Flash Drive, by the way..)

I never tried it, but wouldn’t it be as simple as copying the GW2 directory (consisting of the .dat and .exe file along with maybe 1 or 2 other files) to the flash drive and just running Gw2.exe?

GW2 doesn’t require installation to run (ran it plenty of times from Linux with just Gw2.exe).

Why is it re-downloading the files after I copy+paste it over?… It keeps loading the launcher and saying I need to re-download everything…

To Add: I Don’t mind just installing the files onto a computer to play… That’s not the problem. having to re-download for every computer I use is a HUGE problem… (at my college, they like to reset the hard drive every now and then, so THAT will be painful…)

Just get a big enough flash drive and put the whole folder for the game in there. You should be able to launch it straight from there.

If it tries to download the game, just move it onto the computer where it would usually be installed (c:/Program Files/Guild Wars 2, iirc? That’s where mine is, in any case) and run it from there.

I have done that. It keeps re-downloading… Does the files need to be read-only (or un read-only)… What other things do I need to look at to prevent the re-downloading and just playing of the game?

I was going to suggest creating a master .dat with -image, but it’s nonfunctional.
I was going to suggest digging in your local.dat to see if it stores download/seek location, but it seems like a patch at some point has made it an unused artifact (mine doesn’t even exist anymore).
I even searched for registry entries that might tie a seek location for the .dat: nothing.

Have you tried a fresh install to the flash drive rather than just copypasta and then running it on another terminal?

As for read-only flag, you definitely don’t want it to be read-only. GW2.dat is a compressed file that stores all game assets. If it’s read-only, it can’t flex files it may need at the time and can’t patch internal files as necessary.

I’ll try the fresh install …. That’ll take a really long time though :/

Also: The read-only flag keeps appearing after I apply it to the entire GW2 folder… how do i permanently get rid of read-only?

Another “To add:”…. It’s saying my files are archived on my flash drive now… is that bad? XD

GW2 creates the registry entries when you first run it. Therefore, if you copy it to a flashdrive and try to run it from there (effectively having two copies in separate locations on the same PC), it will try to repair the game because the registry location doesn’t match where you are running it from. Hope that makes sense.

Most likely, you will need to modify the registry entries (or delete them) before you run it from the flash drive. The problem with this, is that you will have to do the same thing when you run it from your hard drive the next time.

Now, if you only want to run it from the flash drive, it will probably work fine if you delete the registry entries so it can create new ones that match the [flash drive] location.

There are two registry keys, but one appears to be for uninstall only so you can probably ignore that one.

The registry key is located here (64 bit system):

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ArenaNet

Warning – you modify the registry at your own risk. Don’t do it if you don’t know what you are doing!

I don’t think what you are trying to do will work, if you just want to install the game on more than one PC. All you have to do is download the installer then save it. Runs the installer if you haven’t already let the game completely install and download all the files it needs. After that is done go into the directory you installed the game to and copy the gw2.dat file to your flash drive and also the installer app you already downloaded. On the second PC run the installer app, this you can do from the flash drive, let it install till it get to the part where it starts that long download. Close out of the installer app and go to the directory the installer app created and copy the gw2.dat file over the top of the existing one and you are ready to play in less then 10 minutes on the second computer. You can use this flash drive to install the game on as many PCs as you want but if there is ever an update to the game this method may not work because some updates change the gw2. Exe file if this happens you will have to update your flash drive with the new installer app and the new gw2.dat file

Catori Tokala.6581:

I have done that. It keeps re-downloading… Does the files need to be read-only (or un read-only)… What other things do I need to look at to prevent the re-downloading and just playing of the game?

Are you trying to run GW2 from a flash drive on a computer that had/has GW2 installed to the HDD at any point?

As I mentioned, I’ve just taken Gw2.exe and the Gw2.dat file and threw them in a folder when I messed around on Linux. No previous install of GW2 was needed, and it just worked. I don’t really see any difference with running it from a flash drive.

Have you tried making a folder called “Guild Wars 2” on the root of the flash drive, and then putting the files in that folder? Also I imagine you’re using NTFS on the flash drive?

The reason it wasn’t working was because i never Copy+Pasta’d the up-to-date version. I copied the previous version onto my flash drive, went to college, and it was already updated be ArenaNet before I could play. I just need to keep the game up-to-date. Good to know.

Thank you everyone! Just clicking the .exe works (AFTER updating it!)

EDIT: Yes, I’m using NTFS because the FAT32 can’t transfer more than 4GB… (that sucks horribly… )… The only loss of NTFS is if you’re not using windows computers…. which 99% of all the computer I come into contact with, is windows. Bahhahaa.

Another thing to ask… can GW2 run off 2.0 USB Flash Drive?

Catori Tokala.6581:

Another thing to ask… can GW2 run off 2.0 USB Flash Drive?

Technically, I see no reason why it shouldn’t.

Loading times “might” be a concern, but I don’t believe they would be a huge issue at all (as long as you’re running full USB 2.0 speeds).

When files and folders are placed onto a removable drive they tend to immediately be given ’Read Only’ attributes.

Now, due to the way the ’Read Only’ attribute for folders is handled by Windows, specifically that Windows ignores that setting being changed through the ’Properties’ window in relation to folders and that setting instead only applies to files within the folder, it is possible that the files in the folder are, indeed, being set to ’Read/Write’ by your un-checking the ’Read Only’ checkbox in their ’Properties’, but the folder itself is marked as ’Read Only’ due to being created on or moved onto the removable drive.

You can try to go from behind the folder and files on the drive through the Command Prompt to ensure that both the game folder and the files within it are, indeed, ’Read/Write’ and not ’Read Only’.

First:
As Espionage mentioned, place the game files (Gw2.dat, Gw2.exe, etc) into a folder on your flash drive called "Guild Wars 2".
ex. If your flash drive is ’F’ then your directory structure would be:
F:\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.dat

Then:
Run these two commands from your Windows Command Prompt, replacing ’F’ with your flash drive’s ’Drive Letter’:
attrib -r F:\Guildw~1
attrib -r F:\Guildw~1\*.*

This will force the game folder and all files within it to be marked as being ’Read/Write’ on the flash drive. You should not have to re-download the game files again and the game should be able to update properly when a new build is released as the existing files will be able to be accessed and written to properly.

Do others agree with this scenario I’ve outlined of the folder and files not being writable due to being placed onto a removable drive and thus the game attempts to re-download the whole game again due to not being writable, and that these commands being run may be effective in solving this problem?

(’disable textile’ was un-checked by my editing my post, the commands are displayed properly now)