Wow.exe – File Information
Wow.exe is the executable file of the game World of Warcraft. Typically, on a Windows XP computer the wow.exe file is located in a subfolder of the C:\Program Files folder.
The wow.exe file is known to exist in the following file sizes on Windows XP computers: 5,238,834, 8,116,224, 4,423,730, 4,775,986, 5,136,434, 7,107,584, 4,730,930, 4,341,810, 12,676,752, 8,272,528, 4,259,890, 8,273,040, 8,092,160, 5,226,546, 8,262,288, 7,837,184, 12,671,120, 4,231,218, 4,542,514, 7,105,024, and 4,419,634 bytes.
Wow.exe Errors
Error 1
When you click on the wow.exe to start World of Warcraft, you may receive the following error:
This application has encountered a critical error:
"ERROR #134(0x85100086) Fatal Condition
Program: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Wow.exe
Failed to read file DUNGEONS\TEXTURES\TREES\KALIDARGIANTTREETRUNK02.blp."
You may complete the following steps to resolve the above wow.exe error:
- Double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop.
- Browse to the wow directory.
- For Windows XP navigate to C:\Program files\World of Warcraft
- For Windows Vista navigate to C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft
- Locate and double-click Data folder.
- Locate and right-click Patch.MPQ file and click Delete.
- Next, double-click repair.exe in the wow folder.
When you run the repair utility, you may receive an error message, saying –
“World of Warcraft is seriously damaged and will need to be reverted to an earlier version. After it has been reverted you may need to patch up to continue playingâ€.
After running the repair utility, reapply the patches and start the game.
Note: In the above steps, we have listed the default location of the wow directory in Windows XP and Windows Vista. If the wow directory on your computer is located in a different location then navigate to that location.
Error 2
When you start World of Warcraft you may receive the following error:
"This update does not need to be applied. It requires version 3.2.0.10192 of "WoW.exe", but you already have version 3.3.0.10958."
Typically, the above error occurs when the patch has installed itself in the wrong place. To repair the wow.exe error, move the patch to your wow directory.
Wow.exe – Is this file safe?
Yes, the true wow.exe is a safe file. Having said this, it is important to understand that writers of malware programs, such as viruses, spyware, trojans, and rootkits give their malicious files similar names as legitimate processes.
To be sure that malware processes are not running on your system, go through the list of existing running processes. To view the current running processes, press Ctrl+Alt+Del, and then click the Processes tab in the Task Manager window that opens.
If World of Warcraft is not installed but you find wow.exe running on the system, then your computer might be infected. Similarly, you should be concerned if World of Warcraft is installed but you see multiple instances of wow.exe processes or find that there are unknown processes running that have similar names as wow.exe. To remove rogue processes and their associated malware programs, run a thorough malware scan on your computer using advanced protective tools, such as STOPzilla Antivirus and Spyware Cease.
After you have removed the malware, you should run a scan of the registry using sophisticated registry cleaning software, such as RegServe, to remove any unwanted, harmful, and incorrect entries that the malware may have added to the registry.