i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Rassen.1234

Rassen.1234

Hi,

(sorry, i know its the wrong forum but people reply faster here than on the technical one and last time i found a solution from you guys here)

This is the third time this has happened to me. the first time i downloaded the game, played, and when i shut down to restart the game i cant find the game’s gw2.exe to start it (shortcut and real file) and had to download all over again. (happened 3 times already) (by the way, im not new gamer, but returning player, didnt play for a year and my computer was bought especially for gw2 so it hasnt been started for a year as well, not like that helps solving this just wanted to state it)

After the third time it happened and i posted (wrong forum but people was helpful) and i found it here C:\Users\ADMIN\AppData\Local\Temp\GW2.exe

It worked fine, i made a shortcut of the gw2.exe to my desktop and was great for about 2 weeks now.

But then….

Today i was lagging a bit (wvw) so i restarted my computer and its gone?!!! wtf hahahaha @^#%&^$
It says the “the item gw2.exe that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly, do you want to delete this shortcut” hell no i havent deleted it and i have no idea where it went. im no expert in computers windows or mac, but this is messed up. comp is going coup de ta on my kitten again.

please help for a solution, im so tired of downloading the game over and over again just to play probably already 44 hours worth of times i downloaded the game….

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Dawdler.8521

Dawdler.8521

Uh… its not supposed to be in a temp catalogue in appdata. No wonder it disappear.

Install to C:\games\GW2 or something like that.

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Rassen.1234

Rassen.1234

when i install the game it doenst let me choose a place to install it.. do i have to take each file manually and put it into a folder? which files do i know belong to the gw2 game? thanks for replying

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: xbutcherx.3861

xbutcherx.3861

Wrong forum? there is a technical support forum you know right?

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Saulius.8430

Saulius.8430

when i install the game it doenst let me choose a place to install it.. do i have to take each file manually and put it into a folder? which files do i know belong to the gw2 game? thanks for replying

but you get to choose where to download installer (unless your browser is configured to save stuff somewhere by default without asking you)

and then installer downloads all gamefiles to same directory

as for window temp dir… it shouldn’t have stuff dissapearing, unless you ran disk cleanup or some other software that removes temporary files

P.S. if you don’t know where installer is downloaded, you can find it through your browsers download window, by rightclicking and choosing to open containing folder – afaik should work for any modern browser

kill all ze thingz

(edited by Saulius.8430)

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Rassen.1234

Rassen.1234

Wrong forum? there is a technical support forum you know right?

Yes sir i do know and i have posted there and if you read i did apologize for posting here but people asnwer faster in this forum and this will be the 4th time i download the game and it takes around 8 hours each time and its frustrating and its nice if i can get more info and help and suggestions which ever forum it comes from.

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Rassen.1234

Rassen.1234

when i install the game it doenst let me choose a place to install it.. do i have to take each file manually and put it into a folder? which files do i know belong to the gw2 game? thanks for replying

but you get to choose where to download installer (unless your browser is configured to save stuff somewhere by default without asking you)

and then installer downloads all gamefiles to same directory

as for window temp dir… it shouldn’t have stuff dissapearing, unless you ran disk cleanup or some other software that removes temporary files

P.S. if you don’t know where installer is downloaded, you can find it through your browsers download window, by rightclicking and choosing to open containing folder – afaik should work for any modern browser

yes i think its downloading without permission and puts my downloads somewhere i dont know where, when i found it on temp it was a fluke because i openeed each and every file i could click on my computer and found it by accident. and you’re probably right that a software is probably cleaning out my temp without permission. all very frustrating cause im no wiz on the comp.

About your advice about if i dont know where the installer is downloading files, i didnt really understand it. (browser download window<—- what is this? is it the download folder from documents?)

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: kuritsutian.2987

kuritsutian.2987

Ok, I assume you are using windows so I would suggest to use the “magnifier” icon aka search dialog box that is in the top of the folder window while you are standing on your local drives (C:,, etc) … search for gw2.exe after some time it should show you where it is.

Edit: if you deleted the exe by accident try searching for gw2.dat … if can’t find it it’s better just to install again.

Suddenly in the Forums Everyone is now a Game designer!

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: xbutcherx.3861

xbutcherx.3861

Hi,

(sorry, i know its the wrong forum but people reply faster here than on the technical one and last time i found a solution from you guys here)

This is the third time this has happened to me. the first time i downloaded the game, played, and when i shut down to restart the game i cant find the game’s gw2.exe to start it (shortcut and real file) and had to download all over again. (happened 3 times already) (by the way, im not new gamer, but returning player, didnt play for a year and my computer was bought especially for gw2 so it hasnt been started for a year as well, not like that helps solving this just wanted to state it)

After the third time it happened and i posted (wrong forum but people was helpful) and i found it here C:\Users\ADMIN\AppData\Local\Temp\GW2.exe

It worked fine, i made a shortcut of the gw2.exe to my desktop and was great for about 2 weeks now.

But then….

Today i was lagging a bit (wvw) so i restarted my computer and its gone?!!! wtf hahahaha @^#%&^$
It says the “the item gw2.exe that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly, do you want to delete this shortcut” hell no i havent deleted it and i have no idea where it went. im no expert in computers windows or mac, but this is messed up. comp is going coup de ta on my kitten again.

please help for a solution, im so tired of downloading the game over and over again just to play probably already 44 hours worth of times i downloaded the game….

First what kind of Anti Virus are you running? what kind of OS you running? win 7? win 10? Have you used Windows Explorer to do a search?
For a better search do this gw2*.*

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Maximus Delion.8719

Maximus Delion.8719

gw2.exe and gw2.dat are the only two files that you really need to copy (if they still exist). There’s a few others, but they’re small enough that you can just let the game re-download them.

If you need to re-download gw2.exe from ArenaNet, right-click on the download link on the webpage and select Save As (or Save Target As, depending on your browser). And then save it someplace like C:\Games\Guild Wars 2.

(If you want everything to be installed “the right way” – first go into Control Panel and uninstall your existing copy of the game. That will clear any any Registry entries that are pointing to your game being in the \temp folder, as well as clearing any flags saying that the game is already installed — which should let you properly choose an install location next time. This isn’t completely necessary except for us Digital OCD types who like our systems set up just right. )

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Kaz.5430

Kaz.5430

When you download an executable file using a browser you get two choices, you can either save the file to your computer or run the file instantly. In firefox the prompt tells you that you’re opening the file, and offers save as an alternative.

If you “run” the file, then GW2 will be downloaded to the same location as the file, which (as you did not specify a save location) is in a temporary folder on your computer, and will be deleted when you reboot and the temporary folder is cleared.

You need to click “save”, pick a non temporay location on your computer (e.g. C:\GuildWars2\), and download the exe to that folder. Then go to the folder where you downloaded the installer and double-click the exe to install the game in that location.

Monarchy - 15 year old browser-based game and roleplay community
Table Warfare Miniatures - Armatures, Custom Miniatures, Moulds etc.

(edited by Kaz.5430)

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Rassen.1234

Rassen.1234

THANK YOU GUYS, i will read one by one and try your suggestions, if a moderator is reading this please dont delete this post. i have different time with europe (asian time) and its late for me so i will try these tomorrow morning.

update.

so i found the exe in temp folder again and i dragged it to program file (x86) with the gw2.dat file already on the computer. i finished downlaoding the game again and logged on and logged out and sure enough it disappeared (the game login). i clicked on the gw2.exe to start the login but it downloaded the whole game from scratch again T_T hiks hiks, (i have the cd inside my harddrive)

tomorrow i will delete everything from control panel and restart whole process a new. probably will delete everything (other games as well) and change the stupid “BAIDU” anti virus i have on the comp. also try to follow each of your suggestions.

thank you again guys, so helpful.

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Maximus Delion.8719

Maximus Delion.8719

Well if the .exe is still being deleted from there, I would start to suspect your anti-virus is falsely flagging it.

Just for kicks, try creating a C:\Games folder and installing there. C:\Program Files is a protected folder, and Windows places some special rules around what can be done by and to programs in that location.

i cant locate my gw2.exe please help

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Posted by: Cedric Ambidexter.9174

Cedric Ambidexter.9174

Wow, the same thing just happened to me.

I was testing out a free button on my gaming mouse which has about 15 buttons, and forgot I had programmed this button to close applications, so it crashed the game, and somehow this made the .exe file disappear.

However, after reading this thread I checked my antivirus application’s log: the gw2.exe file had been quarantined!

So, I restored it and added it to trusted applications. Voila!