Warcraft III listing two copies of map directories

[sethmachine]

Hi,

After I add in maps to the Warcraft III map directory through Windows file Explorer (or Mac finder), WC3 will show two copies of the folder I modified (added a map file to). The 1st copy will be empty and and the 2nd copy will contain the maps. I restarted WC3 multiple times and closed all my Windows File explorers. The 2nd empty copy still is being shown by WC3, and I can't find it on my Windows system.

How do I prevent this behavior and clean it up so WC3 only shows one directory?

I thought this behavior was specific to WC3 on macOS, but the same problem is showing up on Windows. For what it's worth, this definitely did not happen on older WC3/OSes, e.g. on Windows 7 I never observed this issue.

 

[HappyTauren]

Latest patches have messed something up. Your best bet is to delete all reg entries you can find and completely reinstall wc3, that solved the issues for me.

 

[sethmachine]

Latest patches have messed something up. Your best bet is to delete all reg entries you can find and completely reinstall wc3, that solved the issues for me.

I just installed WC3 today into a new Windows 10 machine. How is reinstalling going to fix this? Did the duplicated folders appear again if you copied files into the WC3 maps directory?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Are you putting it into the correct Maps folder? Maps go in...
Documents\Warcraft III\Maps

The Maps folder in the Program Files folder should not be modified.

 

[ZiBitheWand3r3r]

as DSG said plus:
do not use inside Documents\Warcraft III\Maps category names used in original maps like "FrozenThrone" "Scenario". Use unique names for category like "Tests", "MyMaps" etc

 

[sethmachine]

Are you putting it into the correct Maps folder? Maps go in...
Documents\Warcraft III\Maps

The Maps folder in the Program Files folder should not be modified.

OK, that will probably fix it. I went to Documents and saw empty Maps directory. Also, this should be stated clearly by Blizzard. I've played WC3 since it came out, and I never knew this. I guess Program Files is supposed to be read only.

as DSG said plus:
do not use inside Documents\Warcraft III\Maps category names used in original maps like "FrozenThrone" "Scenario". Use unique names for category like "Tests", "MyMaps" etc

The issue is what Dr. Super Good said. I'll just uninstall and reinstall.

 

[Dr Super Good]

OK, that will probably fix it. I went to Documents and saw empty Maps directory. Also, this should be stated clearly by Blizzard. I've played WC3 since it came out, and I never knew this. I guess Program Files is supposed to be read only.

It was changed recently to do that as one requires administrator access to modify the program files folder and administrator access is not something you want to be running games like WC3 in for long periods.

 

[Sh4de]

Is there any way I can move things around so as not to see duplicate folders in game, neither deleting or reinstalling works and my PC is new, so I think the problem is with the installer.

 

[Sverkerman]

and administrator access is not something you want to be running games like WC3 in for long periods.

This had me interested, why not?

 

[Dr Super Good]

This had me interested, why not?

Would you trust every civilian in the United States of America with the nuclear launch codes? Pretty much the same reason.

The standard comes about because there is no reason for user level applications to have administrator access in the first place. When they require it, they can request it but this then becomes a temporary permission elevation that must be explicitly approved. An application cannot do bad things if they are never permitted to even try, and if they then try it flags up.

When arbitrary code execution was possible with Warcraft III one could create a malicious map that would directly order the deletion of the Windows folder, corrupting the user's OS. By denying Warcraft III administrator access, or any application which really does not need it, then this is not directly possible as it will throw a security exception and the delete operation will fail.

 

[Sh4de]

Ah, had another issue pop up and had to manually search for all files and folders containing warcraft 3 data and delete them before reinstalling for the clone folders to go away. I miss old operating systems where associated files were removed when you did an uninstall.