Quick update: I managed to get hands on another PC where I did a fresh install of b.net client and redownload the whole game; copied the entire folder on a USB stick and pasted over my WoW Folder worked like a charm with just a quick Scan and Repair action and now I can login without issues. PC with fresh install has Windows 10 while mine is Windows 11. I don’t know if it’s an OS issues or whatever just piss me off that there has been no news about this problems by Blizzard. I sincerely hope it won’t happen again…
Boys ! I fixed it !!!
Atleast for me on Windows 11 maybe it works on Windows 10 to.
Do a Fresh Install it will be 90 Gb.
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Start the Installation it will stuck at Initializing, close Battlenet and in Taskamager the “Update Agent”
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Go to C:\ProgramData and delete 3 Files, Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment and Battlenet Components don’t Restart your Computer, then open Battlenet again and don’t choose your Installation just start a New one and it will work !
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If this Method doesn’t work, try 3 Things.
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Disable Antivirus and retry the Tutorial
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Disable Antivirus, go to Battlenet Settings set your Download to 70% of your Download speed, retry the Tutorial.
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Disable Antivirus, go to Battlenet Settings set your Download to 70% of your Download Speed, Change to Battlenet Beta launcher, retry the Tutorial.
Hope it Works for ya, enjoy the Game !
I have found the Solution that worked for me on Windows 10:
- Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete), this is where you see all programs running and can End Tasks (kill program).
- In this same window go to Details tab
- Here you should see Agent.exe (with battle.net logo) and lower down should see a few or many Battle.net.exe
- There is a Column called UAC virtualization, and for Agent.exe and Battle.net.exe should say not allowed or disabled.
- I have changed all Battle.net.exe and Agent.exe to enable (right-click on either and change UAC Virtualization)
And now from being forever stuck on initialization, it started Downloading the game for me. I hope this helps someone too.
P.S.: my antivirus and firewall are disabled/ turned off. I doubt this has had any contribution to my success because it was still stuck after disabling the antivirus and firewall.
3 Likes
still not working its like one week
I figured out how to get it working
After at least 5 wild fixes that come from someone on YouTube or the forums, it would be time for Blizzard to fix their damn launcher for once. This is something that isn’t even new, I swear I had a similar issue in 2016 already.
Another day, another starting WoW from the folder. What happens when the big update hits and I need to update it “for realz”?
Am I entitled for a refund on my gaming time because this has been going on all of my machines!
Totally disrespectful!!!
2 Likes
Had a DC while opening the mission table today, since than the battle.net launcher tries to repair the game. Got the same initialize error. I thought “maybe, if a completly reinstall the game, it will also remove old data that isnt used anymore”.
It is now trying to reinstall the game for 5 hours now.
Tried to delete the blizz things in %temp% , %programdata%, %localappdata%, %appdata%.
After 5 hours it could only make the “dat.000” file with 1.055.372.930 Bytes size and some .idx files, but nothing else…
No error msg or anything else.
I would like to point out that everyone who has the problem should simply close Battlenet during initialization and go to C:\ProgramData and delete 3 folders, “Blizzard Entertainment, Battlenet_Components & Battle.net”
Then restart the launcher and select the game, then wait 10 seconds and it should update.
If you don’t have the game, do the same process, you shouldn’t select the installation, but completely reinstall it.
Blizzard babbles it’s the client’s fault, but I blame Blizzard for delivering a broken launcher. Not optimized for current Winows Versions or Security Applications.
2 Likes
Still getting these issues; I am always stuck at initializing for every single update.
I have to pause it, then resume it, then wait it out and then it starts… it’s really annoying and it’s a ‘brand new issue’ for me, as that never happened before.
I still have the issues too, ‘stuck’ on initializing for 4-5 mins and then it at least starts downloading an update… I guess it’s something.
Getting to be an absolute joke this
I just had it today and i just fixed it today you have to go to task manager kill all battle.net executeables mine would not even verify game files it just kept failing and wanting to update, something really wrong with battle.net launcher right now, not just battle.net launcher also wow it self its as if there is a huge memory leak but you cant see it in task manager, causing whole system to freeze.
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left the launcher on all night and tried to follow the suggestion of the customer support on another thread. Nothing. What a waste of money. Stupid me thinking that downloading a game was easy before buying the sub
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Edit: I
- Closed the launcher (again)
- Removed the 2 folders in programData (again)
- disabled antivirus & firewall
- relaunched the launcher
Now it is downloading. I’m very confused
I tried most of the recommended solutions here and nothing worked…
BUT I’ve got it working by killing “Blitz” app for League of Legends that was running in the background. And then turning on UAC Virtualization in the task manager/details for agent.exe and all battle.net.exe processes. As soon as I killed that app and enabled UAC on those in task manager, WoW started downloading.
2 Likes
Hello, Blizzard? Some of your userbase can’t even log in, shouldn’t this be a priority? I can’t start the game even from the folder now and not a single “official” and unofficial fix works anymore!
Same here, battle net app stuck on wow client initialization phase and notihing help
I recently tried to download this game after a good few years away and got stuck on this issue like many others.
I did some investigating via different apps as well as a third party program designed to test conflicts with System files and it does seem like the client is conflicting with UAC virtualization for the client, and update agent.
For PC, A workaround ( although its at your own discretion) is as follows:
Start the battle.net app and install the program till you get to the initialization loop.
Then when it loops, end the app by going to the blizzard logo in the top left, right click, and click exit.
- Control panel > user accounts > Change User Account Control Settings
- Slide the slider all the way down to never Notify.
- Click ok and accept any prompts that may come up.
- Hit CTRL + R to open a run prompt. Type in " taskschd.msc " and click ok. Task manager will pop up.
- Click Task library in the left column
- In the far right column, click Create task…
- In General tab, Under name, type in Battle.net Update Application.
- Under description, give it a quick description to something youll easily remember.
- At the bottom, make sure, "run with highest privileges is checked.
- Click the actions tab
- Click New
- Under the program/script box, browse to your agent.exe file. Under a default installation it should be located at C:\ProgramData\Battle.net\Agent\Agent.8067\Agent.exe or similar.
- Click OK
- Click conditions, then under power, make sure “start the task only if the computer is on AC power” is UNCHECKED.
- click ok.
- Repeat steps 6 to 15 and make an entry for your battle.net application . Note this will NOT be the launcher, but the file will be called battle.net.exe>
The default path will be similar to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Battle.net\Battle.net.exe”
Now restart your computer, and run the launcher. Start a new installation and the game should install correctly. Some users may have to restart the launcher once or twice.
1 Like
The issue with this is that the game is conflicting with windows UAC virtualization. You either need to disable it completely, or force enable it for the agent.exe app and the battle.net.exe app through task scheduler or powershell.
For PC it will work 100% of the time. There are many third party programs you can get which show UAC conflicts and runtime in depth to check it yourself.
I did type out a full guide on how to do this, but it seems that the forums deleted it.