What's the best way to reinstall LOTRO or DDO?

What's the best way to reinstall LOTRO or DDO?*

The best method for a clean reinstall of either Dungeons & Dragons Online or The Lord of the Rings Online is essentially three steps:

1. Uninstalling
2. Removal of left behind files/folders
3. Reinstalling

* Note that this guide is for the Windows, and non Steam based versions of the installs.

Step One: Uninstalling.

First, ensure that the game is not running at all; meaning the games graphical client as well as the game launcher (which lists an icon in the bottom-right corner of the Windows desktop near the clock that you can right-click on and choose to exit the launcher program from).

To start the uninstall process for the game click on the Windows Start button and choose "Control Panel" and in there select either "Add or Remove Programs" or "Uninstall a Program" depending on which is listed.

In the list of programs that will come up, locate either "Dungeons & Dragons Online" or "The Lord of the Rings Online" and click to select it and then click the Remove/Uninstall button.

This will start the game's uninstaller program which will remove the game. To make reinstalling somewhat easier, and to avoid removing files the user wants to keep (such as screenshots), the uninstaller does not remove every file or folder relating to the game. These should be removed manually before reinstalling and this process is detailed in the next section.

Step Two: Removal of left behind files/folders.

After the game is uninstalled it leaves a DDO or LOTRO related folder behind in two locations. This leaves some basic user-specific files behind that (for the purposes of a clean reinstall) should be removed manually by the user once the uninstaller has completed.

The first of these folders is named Dungeons & Dragons Online or The Lord of the Rings Online and can be found in your Documents (Windows Vista or 7) or My Documents (Windows XP). To find and remove this folder click on your Windows start button again and choose Documents or My Documents from the menu that comes up.

Once you are inside of this folder you should see it has a folder within named either (depending on which game was installed) Dungeons & Dragons Online or The Lord of the Rings Online. . Do not delete this folder yet though.

Before you right-click on the Dungeons & Dragons Online or The Lord of the Rings Online folder and choose delete you want to make sure that it does not contain any files that you want to save such as screenshots or similar and if it does you should back these files up to another folder or location on your computer so they are not lost.

Note: If you are unsure whether you want to fully delete this folder, as an alternative step you can right-click on it and choose Rename and just give it a new name like OLD Dungeons & Dragons Online or OLD The Lord of the Rings Online as an alternative to removing it completely.

There is one last area where the game created a Dungeons & Dragons Online* or The Lord of the Rings Online folder and this is in the Windows Program Files folder (* some newer DDO installers may name this copy of the folder DDO Unlimited instead).

To remove this folder (or alternately just like the one above, rename it instead) follow these steps:

1. Click on the Windows Start button and choose "My Computer" or "Computer"
2. In there, double-click on your C: drive (it may display as Local Disk C)
3. Double-click on "Program Files" (note: if you see "Program Files (x86)" double-click on that one instead)
4. In that folder, double-click on the Turbine folder
5. In here you can either right-click and delete this occurrence of the Dungeons & Dragons Online or The Lord of the Rings Online folder or you can simply choose to rename it instead.
6. DDO players: Newer installations of the game have named this folder DDO Unlimited.

Step Three: Reinstalling.

To reinstall the game, you need a minor checklist of items:

1. An installation method to use, either the DVDs or a downloaded install.
2. Enough free hard-drive space to install the game (also if using a download, then enough free space for both).
3. Some updates if you are going to use the DVDs and are on Vista or Windows 7 (more on these below).

For reinstalling the game at this stage you need a copy of the installation itself. You can use pre-existing copies of the install you have from prior use if needed but if you do not have a copy of the install to use review the following.

Optimally the recommended version is one of the pre-updated copies available for download either here for DDO or here for LOTRO.

For using the downloaded installation of the game there is a detailed guide on the downloading process (and installation) here for DDO or here for LOTRO.

I only have the DVD version of the install, are there any issues using those I should be aware of?

Before using the DVD's to reinstall with, there are a few specifics to be aware of and some additional steps that may need to be taken, and these are outlined below (Note that LOTRO installs using the newer "Mithril Edition" DVD's released in 2011 are only affected by option 4 in this list):

1. The DDO DVDs were released in 2006!
2. The (original) LOTRO DVDs were released in 2007 ("Shadows of Angmar") and then an updated set in 2008 ("Mines of Moria").
3. All installs performed via the three DVD sets noted above are significantly older, so they will need an enormous amount of patch downloading to update.
4. The LOTRO dvd's are Dual-Layer DVD disks. If you put the disk in to your drive and it does not automatically start, or you cannot open it to browse through explorer, then you are either not using a DVD-ROM drive (i.e. it's either a CD-Rom, or CD-Recordable drive, not DVD) or the DVD drive that is being used does not support Dual-Layer disks*.
   * This is usually noted by receiving a file copy error during installation because as the setup program tries to read data off of the second layer, the drive cannot do so resulting in an inability of the system to copy the files off of the disk.
5. Windows Vista or 7 users with the LOTRO or DDO DVDs need to be aware that either game installations performed via DVD (with some minor exceptions in the LOTRO Mines of Moria disks) install a version of the game that is prior to it being updated with critical Vista compatibility updates. As such, once installed it still may not function/update correctly on Vista (and thereby Windows 7 as well since it was based on Vista).
   If you use the DVD's to install with, review the section below titled Updates for the DVD installs.

Updates for the DVD installs (For installing with these on Vista/Win7)

Note: LOTRO players that installed the game using the newer "Mithril Edition" DVD's can skip these steps.

If you are running Windows Vista or 7 and are using the DVDs for reinstalling the game, (even if they are the LOTRO Mines of Moria set) you are going to want to install the game from the DVDs but do not let the install launch the game at the end of the installation (de-select the "Run the game" option at the end of the install). Instead perform these steps below:

The DVDs install versions of the games are before some Windows Vista compatibility updates, so some time back there were launcher updates that added compatibility updates to the launcher allowing it to function.

If you are running Win Vista or 7 and installed DDO via DVD click (see below for what to do after clicking) to download this file here (ddolauncher_1358_en.exe).

If you are running Win Vista or 7 and installed LOTRO via DVD click (again see steps below) to download this file here (lotrolauncher_13123_us.exe).

When you click the appropriate link above, make sure that you use the "Save" option (not "Run" or "Open") and use the save as dialog to download the file to the folder the game installed into using these steps below:

1. In the "Save as" dialog (Ensure that "Save" was chosen when the link was clicked in the steps above) click the "Computer"/"My Computer" icon on the left side of the save as dialog.
2. Now double-click on your "C:" drive (which may display as "Local Disk C:") and then Program Files (or Program Files (x86) if you have that one instead) and then Turbine.
3. In the "Turbine" folder you want to then double-click on either "Dungeons & Dragons Online" (or "DDO Unlimited") or "The Lord of the Rings Online"
4. Click the "Save" button in the lower-right corner of the "Save as.." dialog.
5. Once the file has finished downloading you want to open the folder you just saved it to:
6. Click on the Windows "Start" button and choose "My Computer" or "Computer"
7. In there, double-click on the C: drive (may display as "Local Disk C") and then double-click on "Program Files" (or "Program Files (x86)") and then the "Turbine" folder
8. In there, double-click to open either "Dungeons & Dragons Online" (or "DDO Unlimited") or "The Lord of the Rings Online"
9. DDO users should find ddolauncher_1358_en.exe (it might just list as "ddolauncher_1358_en") and double-click on it.
10. LOTRO users should find lotrolauncher_13123_us.exe (again it might just list as "lotrolauncher_13123_us") and double-click on it.
11. Windows might prompt with a "User Account Control" (UAC) message about allowing the file to make changes. If it does, choose yes and supply administrator info as requested or required.
12. Windows might also ask "Do you want to overwrite files?". Click to enable the "Do this for the next 'X' conflicts' option and then choose the "Copy & Replace" option and allow the file to overwrite the files. (Alternately, if you get a "custom" dialog asking if you want to overwrite the files choose the "Yes to All" option).
13. Once this file finishes updating the game, you now want to try launching it per the next step.
14. You should see in this same folder, a file named "TurbineLauncher" (it will be listed as an "application" and will have either the one-ring for an icon in LOTRO or the red shield icon in DDO)
15. Once you have found it right-click this file and choose "Run as Administrator" (Important: Launching the game in this manner is only recommended for the purposes of this process, there are detailed steps below* on how to launch the game normally going forward from this point)
16. Added note for DDO Users: If you only are able to find dndlauncher instead of Turbinelauncher (both use the red shield icon), try the step above with dndlauncher instead.

These updated launcher files should allow the game to function on Windows Vista and 7 with a minimal of issues, and also while this is a predominately required set of steps for Vista/Win7 users, players on Windows XP that install by the DVDs still might want to also use these launcher updates as a just in case if they encounter issues launching the game after installing via the DVD's.

* The method of launching the game detailed in these steps is meant as a one time testing option in the steps above. For launching the game going forward review the section below titled "I installed it but there's no 'desktop' icon?" for info on launching the game on Vista/7 normally.

Additional Frequently Asked Questions:

I installed it but there's no 'desktop' icon?

DDO users please see this article here and LOTRO players please see the one here. (Added Note: This icon in "Games" is why above it was noted to only launch the game in that manner the once, this shortcut correctly points to TurbineInvoker.exe which is how the game should be launched on Vista or Windows 7 going forward.)

I receive 'file copy errors' during the install?"

If during the installation process itself you receive a file copy error review this article here.

I'm receiving error '201' after I installed?"

After the installation or after the game patches (updates) if you receive a 201 Error when it tries to open review this article here.

Where can I find additional information about the installation process itself?

There are two knowledge base articles that cover the installation process here for DDO or here for LOTRO.

Additional Note: The first part of those articles goes over the download of the install files first, if you already have the install files downloaded, (or are using the DVD's) that section can be skipped to review the ones detailing the installation process itself.

If you require further assistance please follow up with Technical Support.

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