Some of us have been playing World of Warcraft all the way back to release, and some even before that in Beta, but with every new expansion comes new players, and even some older players that have just never bothered to use an addon before. This guide is a step by step process for finding, downloading and manually installing an addon. So experienced users, you have my permission to skip this article. As for the rest of you, read on.
Finding Your Addon
As I mentioned before, there are several options available to find the addon you are looking for. For this demonstration, I have used Curse as my example. Before you begin, you should have an idea of what it is you are looking for. Perhaps it’s a bar mod, or maybe it’s a damage meter. In this case, we’re looking for a threat meter, particularly, Omen Threat Meter.
The first step to getting your shiny new addon is to go to the download site and search for it. After heading over to Curse, I click in the search field and start to type in “Omen Threat Meter“, and I only get the first word in before the site already knows what I’m looking for. Once the text is in, I click the search button.
Five results popped up, but the first one is the one I’m looking for, Omen Threat Meter. So I give it a click.
The new page loads and now there is a vast amount of information about this addon. Included are the author’s name, the most recent release date, some screen shots, and current version number. Also there is a description of the mod, and comments by users who have used it. Personally, I like to skim over the description and comments for an addon I am not familiar with, and I generally only check the version if I am updating an addon. Please do read any and all information you would need to make you feel comfortable with the mod.
Downloading Your Addon
To download the addon, select the download button at the near top of the page. Once you have done this you will be directed to a new page which has the Manual Install button or the Automatic Install button. Below that is an option to donate. Let me explain here very quickly that most mods do not cost anything to use, but do accept donations to continue their development. If you love a mod and use it all the time, I would encourage you to donate, but you do NOT have to pay to use an addon. In this case, select Manual Install. Save your file to somewhere you know how to find. In my case, I use Firefox and it will automatically download my files to a download folder I have specified.
Extracting Your Addon
The next step in the process is to find the file you have downloaded (which will be a zip file), and extract it. Windows comes pre-loaded now a days with the ability to extract files. However, if you do not have a file extractor, you can always download WinZip for all your extracting needs.
To extract your files (and I use Windows Vista, in case that is important), I right click on the folder, and go down the list until I find the extract all option, and click on it. This will open a new window that asks where I’d like to unzip my file to. Most everyone has their World of Warcraft installed in the same location, but if you do not, this will not apply to you… to get to my WoW directory I have to select:
C: Drive > Program Files > World of Warcraft > Interface >Addons
and then I hit the unzip button.
Congratulations! You can wipe the sweat off your brow, the hard part is over.
Enabling Your Addons
Now we just need to make sure the addon is, well, turned on. To do this, log in and take a look at your character selection screen. On the bottom left corner is a tiny little button that says “Addons”. Click this button to bring up the addon management screen.
After each patch, addons become “Out of Date”. Oftentimes, they still work just fine. To turn them on if they are “out of date” just click to box in the upper right hand corner marked as “load out of date addons”. Now, scroll down to Omen Threat Meter, and make sure the box is checked. If it is, you’re all set, and ready to play WoW with your new addon loaded up and ready to go!
And that’s all there is to it!
Until Next Time
-Andrea
Found a cool addon? Want to share a UI tip? In the mood to contribute a guest post? Have some ideas for future posts? Feel free to 
I see in the screenshot you use PallyPower, good all Pallies should be using it, I’ always bothered when I’m in a group and other palladins aren’t using it, it just doesnt make sense not to.
It’s definitely worth noting that installing an addon manually is hands-down the safest way to go about using them. Using any kind of automated download or updater tool, you still run a risk, however small, of getting more than you bargained for. By doing everything by hand, and checking each download for potentially malicious files, such as those with .exe or .bat extensions, you can be 100% sure that you will not wind up with a keylogger infection or similar nasties.
I’m not trying to be an alarmist and do use an updater tool myself. I’m not at all trying to recommend against their use. Just use common sense and be proactive about your account/PC’s security. Buy some good antivirus software, and maybe an Authenticator while you’re at it.
Good post. That’s all someone who’s new to the game or using addons has to now.
For everyone else: Please do read what Andrea has to say regarding donations. And now read it again.
The addon community is based on bright minds that spend insane amounts of time for developing addons, answering questions or fixing bugs/conflicts. Most of them have full time jobs. Many of them spend more time working on their addons than actually playing the game. A huge part of those guys is extremly friendly and patient when you ask them something.
That’s why you should consider donating from time to time.
drug’s last blog post..Addons: The LDB post
Some things that come in handy to those who regularly download and update their AddOns:
It can be handy to register at an AddOn site, so you can add your AddOns to a Favorites list. There is a button to do so on each AddOn’s page. Then you can click on your favorites list to easily browse new versions of the mods you use.
When unzipping, while you can use Windows’ built in .zip opener (double-click the .zip and drag the contents out), I do recommend learning to use WinZip or another unzip program, as they are much faster for large AddOns with many libraries. If you leave WinZip open, you can drag .zip files onto it, and click Extract for each one.
Also, if you have any problems with the Curse website (sometimes it can be slow), I recommend wowinterface.com, an excellent site that has nearly all the same AddOn files.
Wikwocket’s last blog post..Is Power Word: Shield TOO good?
Thanks guys, for the feedback…
@Grinch – I agree that Pallypower is a MUST have for paladins, and all of those within my guild are required to have it. I will eventually write someone about the addons I use for the various classes and why, as Im truly an Altoholic at heart.
@Ithato – Nice input there. I agree fully with your statement. It is so easy anymore to put your account at risk. Please do check over files every now and again to make sure everything is as it should be.
@Drug – Donations to addon authors is surely a good way to keeping your favorite addons in production. However, again, you should never HAVE to pay for one, but do consider donations.
@Wikwocket – Great advice. It is always a good idea to familiarize yourself with different versions of software. In this case, using an extractor is something I’ve found quite a few people have never had to do before. We stuck with the beginner’s version on this one.
Thanks for all the input guys, it helps!
Pally Power was more required in BC when we had about half a dozen various blessings to give out, but today most paladins have three blessings. If you need Pally Power to tell 3 paladins what buffs they need to do, that seems a bit lazy IMO, and it’s letting an addon do the thinking for you, especially since for me it takes 10 seconds to assign both pally buffs and pally auras for people to do.
@Q – Interesting observation. I disagree. However, I find it far more useful to see who has buffs, who needs buffs, and how much time is left, over the ease of assigning the buffs. Whether I say them out loud or click it with a mouse, it requires the same amount of thought.
Of course, it’s just my .02 cents.
I use the other people in the party as my Pally Power mod. Far more useful to have a bunch of people in a uproar towards the person assigned to buff, say, Kings.. I’d rather that they actually take some time to be situationally aware themselves rather than rely on a mod to take account of what’s going on around them for the person.
Just as an interesting observation with regards to Vista and Addons. I don’t personally use Vista, but my flat mates do. In a past patch installer, the installer would shift your WoW folder to a ‘public’ location (in the case of my friends laptop C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft). This I assume is due to the new file permissions system Vista introduced.
Anyway, what that meant was that Addons needed to be extracted to this new ‘public’ folder, as opposed to the Program Files version, in order for them to be detected and work. I’m not sure if this is the case for every Vista user playing WoW, but certainly the case for my two flatmates. So if you extract your addons to the ‘Program Files’ WoW folder and you get no joy, check to see if there hasn’t been another WoW folder created somewhere else.
Anyone with more experience, or further clarification on the situation, please pipe up because as I say, I play on XP, I just remember my flatmates running into problems in the past and that being the solution.
I prefer to install addons manually, at least the new ones. I’m always sceptical about ‘autotools’. Unfortunately, I find this manual approach a pain to update addons regularly. This process becomes increasingly annoying as the number of addons grow.
While I avoid overloading on addons, manual maintenance almost begs the approach of ‘wait till an error occurs and then update that addon’. You won’t hear any RL welcome that option though.
So, we are somewhat forced to fall back on regular updates. Autotools updaters become a very attractive option then. But if they serve to update, they might as well serve to install new addons as you’re running the same risk either way.
Perhaps an excellent way to support manual installation would be a sort of xml/rss feed witch a stream of updates for addons you selected. Does anyone know if such a feed is available somewhere?
@Zusterke
That’d be an interesting side project for me or someone else with similar inclinations. Currently, I just skim my 2-3 site-wide RSS feeds during the day in Google Reader and star the ones I need to take action on when I get home.
I checked briefly, and if you followed Wikwocket’s suggestion, Curse’s Favorites page did not appear to have any RSS feed, while WowInterface’s page does.
You could probably use something like Yahoo Pipes to do it on your own, though.
I always install addons manually the first time they are installed, but allow and auto-updater to take care of it afterward. This way I can get more detail from the description and comments on the addon page.
Zusterke – I don’t know of any sort of XML/RSS feeds that do what you are talking about, but that would be helpful!
Brajana’s last blog post..Ghugh, forty!
@Gray – You are right, I too had this problem when I first started out with Vista. As you thought it has to do with permissions and such. I bypassed this by not installing the game through disks. I copied the entire World of Warcraft directory to an outside harddrive, and whenever I need to reinstall the game or load a fresh version, I just copy that over from my extra harddrive to where I want it. This bypasses all that install stuff, and my files go exactly where I want them to. You could also try lowering the security settings on the machine.
Hope that helps.
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