One of the downsides to playing a game where the developers allow addons, is the fact that things don’t always work right. There are very few Blizzard checks and balances for addon developers to face before releasing a mod into the populace. On the flip side you can say that the biggest issue with addons is not the addon itself but that addons stop working when Blizzard changes certain things in the game.

In the long run it is a given that people who customize their user interface, will get a meltdown and have to redo the entire thing at some point. But did you know there are a few simple things you can do that will save you a lot of grief in restoring or transferring your UI?

First off, setting up your UI on multiple characters is as easy as selecting your main characters addon profile from the list in your addons’ Profiles section. This will automatically convert that aspect of your UI to the same state as your main character’s. Almost all addons have a saved profiles section to transfer setting between characters. Even if you wish to have different UI layouts on each character, starting off with a profile instead of bars or unit frames all bunched up in the center of your screen will make things easier.

In the case of errors or having to reformat your computer there is a way that you can save the preferences of your addons. The WTF folder in your Warcraft directory holds your personal setting for everything from video resolution options to addon preferences. This folder holds the options for each character on each server on each account that you have. By deleting this folder you revert your UI to the state it was when you first install World of Warcraft. To keep your UI intact all you need is:

1. Copy your Addon and WTF folders to another directory or a disk in the case of a reformatting.
2. Restart Warcraft and the game will automatically restore the stock Addon and WTF folders.
3. Take your copied folders and move them back into their position and overwrite the new ones.

Sometimes addons don’t have a way to save preferences so you might have one or two out of place when you log back on but overall this will reinstall your UI to a similar state as it was before.

It is simple to copy and restore your addons to your specifications, but sometimes it is the addons themselves that are causing the problem and the only answer is to delete them or check them one by one until you find the problem.

Most of the time I carry a 4 gig flash drive with around with me that holds my UI in case I log on at a friends or at a lan center. The copying your folders can be taken a step further if you wish to create a compilation for other players to download. Just take the folders and compress them into a .zip or .rar file. People that wish to you your UI will only have to replace their folders with yours and change the names in the WTF folder to their account, server, and character names. UI compilations are very popular on site like Curse.com and WoWInterface because they allow players to find entire UIs that meet their needs instead of crafting one from scratch.