Running the game

System requirements
Official specification for Eye of the North (earlier campaigns have slightly lower requirements):

Official Requirements FAQ (for all games)
 * See also

Support
For help with problems running the game when your system meets the above system requirements, look at the official support site, where you can also ask for help from a support representative if you cannot find a solution to your problem on the support database.

Command line arguments
Command line arguments are startup parameters that can be used to alter the game's behavior. For a complete list and instructions on how to use these see Command line arguments.

Languages
Guild Wars currently supports several different languages. These include English, Korean, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Russian and Bork! Bork! Bork!. Audio language is available in English, Korean, French, German, Italian and Spanish and can be freely mixed together (e.g. Korean text and German voices).

Intel
Intel graphics cards are not officially supported. (See: NCSoft knowledge base article.)
 * However, all Intel GMA900 or higher graphics processors are believed to be able to run Guild Wars, but the graphics are sometimes buggy; third party software may be necessary to prevent crashes in certain areas).
 * All 9xx and Core 2 chipsets with integrated graphics include an appropriate graphics processor, this includes all new Intel chipsets with integrated graphics from 2005 onward and some new chipsets with integrated graphics from 2004.
 * See also: Intel GMA Performance Tweaks on Guild Wars Guru (Describes using 3D-Analyze to tweak the Intel GMA3100 graphics card to work with GW).

Linux (any variation)
Players have reported success on Linux using Wine, CrossOver or using a virtual machine.

Apple
Players have reported success on Apple systems based on Intel microchips, using Wine, CrossOver virtual machine, or dual-booting into Windows (e.g. using Boot Camp).

Windows 7
Guild Wars will run on Windows 7 without any special software or compatibility modes. However, Windows 7 is not officially supported at this time.

Known issues

 * Runs like Vista: Guild Wars run on Windows 7 just as it runs on Vista (since both OSs use the same framework).
 * Loading screen: The loading screen goes black before loading the destination.
 * If this happens, change the compatibility of gw.exe from Windows XP... to Windows Vista... (and chose your service pack).
 * Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (and beyond) offers an option for Windows 7 compatibility, which will also resolve the loading screen problem.
 * This does not work for all video cards.
 * Template folder locations: the template folders can be located in different directories, depending on the compatibility mode chosen. If you change the mode, the location will change. The likely locations are:
 * C:\Programs\Guild Wars\Templates (XP compatibility)
 * C:\Users\NAME\Documents\Guild Wars\Templates (Vista compatibility)
 * C:\Users\NAME\Documents\Guild Wars\Templates (Windows 7 compatibility)
 * Windows desktop flash: This sometimes happens when the game loads a new zone in Windows 7 under Service Pack 3 or later.
 * Suggested approach: find your  file, right-click to chose properties, then select the . Choose "Run this program in comparability mode:" for "Windows Vista (Service Pack 2)".

Mobile Drives (Mobile HDD, Flash Drives)
The game can be run off any removable disk (e.g. Mobile HDD, Flash Drives, ...) even if the game has not been previously installed. After running Guild Wars off a mobile drive, the game will leave shortcuts (on the Desktop and Start Menu) and make changes to the registry. The machine must otherwise meet the same requirements listed above (OS, graphics).

Alternatively, you can copy your Guild Wars program folder from one machine to the removable disk and from the removable to another machine.

Networked Hard Drives
The game can also be run from a networked location or networked hard drive, although you should expect performance issues due to lag within your Local Area Network (LAN); it takes a long time to transfer data from the multi-gigabyte gw.dat file.

Make sure that the drive is properly shared and accessible from any machine on that network. To launch, browse to the Guild Wars directory. This method also leaves shortcuts and registry changes.