A few people have been having difficulties with getting NPCScan to work, so I decided to write up a visual guide (because pictures say 1000 words) to try and help hunters get it working. In addition to that, I’ve also included some info for another great alternative to NPCScan.
Vista Users: WoW’s active Addon folder may be located in: User/Public/Games/World of Warcraft, instead of your install location. Supposedly some users have been having issues where the addons weren’t showing up because the addons in the main WoW addon directory weren’t being called up by the game – because it was using the ones in the User/Public/Games/World of Warcraft one.
Methods of Installing
With the Curse Client
Firstly, the easiest way (and one way I use) is to fire up the Curse Client. I’ve been using it for a very long time and haven’t had any issues with it (sometimes downloads fail, but that’s usually my ISP acting funny — curse you ISP!). Curse does have security measures in place with their client and also scans all addons that are submitted. Though at the same time, Curse makes money from Premium users, so they wouldn’t widely mention security vulnerabilities. Of course, the posts about accounts being hacked might not even be legit. Those could be someone purposely giving bad rep to Curse.
Ultimately, what method you use is up to you, and what you feel comfortable with. No matter what method you use, you should always have a good security package setup. Personally, I use Avast, Comodo Firewall and Malwarebytes (great for picking up keyloggers – you should also copy and paste your password when logging into WoW just in case you picked up a keylogger doing something naughty).
Follow the instructions and install it, but don’t use the same password you use for WoW. Not because that’s a security issue with Curse, but you shouldn’t be signing up for anything using your WoW email address and password 😉
Once installed, you can now install addons via the Curse website. Click on the Install via Curse Client button, or click on Download More Addons in the Curse Client. Now wait for the addon database to download, then search for NPCscan in the top right corner, then click Install next to the addon’s name to install it, and you’re done. Curse client will periodically check for updates (frequency depending on the options you select).
Manual Installation
If you choose the manual method you will need an unzipping tool. Usually all operating systems come with an unzipper built in which handles the common archives like ZIP. I use WinRAR, but for screenshot purposes I’ll use 7-Zip which is a FREE unzipper which not only handles ZIPs but a whole range of other archive types.
Choose the version for your system type – 32/64 bit. If you are unsure, you can right click on My Computer to see the processor type – or just choose 32 bit to be safe.
After installing, download _NPCScan. Then, open up the download destination folder and right click on the file to extract as shown in the screenshot.
You should now have a folder called “_NPCScan”. When you open that folder you should see the contents:
Copy the “_NPCScan” folder over to your World of Warcraft Addons folder. Similar to below, but of course you may have installed to a different directory but the folder structure inside is the same. Note my comment at the start of the article if you’re a Vista user.
When you open up WoW you should see NPCScan near the top of your addons list.
To edit preferences in-game, use the command:
/npcscan
Now the issue with NPCScan is you have to always empty your cache, and this can be a pain. The method I use is having my cache directory cleaned every time I start Windows. You can download an application that can do this, as well as empty lots of other temporary files.
Install the application, selecting the options you want (be sure to read the installation, don’t just click next next next as sometimes apps will select to install search toolbars by default). I usually select the option to display CCleaner when I right click the Recycle Bin.
After installing, open up CCleaner and firstly uncheck anything you don’t want the app to auto delete on start up (for example, memory dump files/recycle bin). Secondly, click Options -> Include -> Add. Click Browse, and select the Cache folder.
Once hitting OK, you should get the following screen:
Now click Settings, and make the adjustment below to have it run on start-up.
Once you get cached in-game, you can exit WoW and right-click on the Recycle Bin and click “Run CCleaner”.
Alternatives to NPCScan
Although it’s a great addon, it’s limited to how many rares you see, especially if you want to see most of the “rares” in WoW. Plus, the caching system is a bit of a nuisance to clear because you have to log out of WoW.
This is where SilverDragon comes in. It has a database of currently 438 rares (rare tameables and rare mobs/NPCs), PLUS… if the rare does cache, it will still alert you again (no logging out of WoW needed).
You just have to make some changes to you get alerts more often.
Use the command:
/silverdragon
Once the preferences window has popped up, adjust the settings as below:
Now click on Data Management and import the database:
And voila… you’re done!
I hope this guide has helped at least one person, but if you are still having troubles with the addons please let me know and I’ll try to find a work around. 🙂
– Ancksanura
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Can you update this tut for 2013? It’s kind of outdated…
Didn’t actually see this comment though it was made well over a year ago. I believe the the tutorial should still work very similar. I will have a look when I resub WoW to ensure it’s still the same process. Only thing which could make this outdated is if NPC Scan stored the cached location in a different folder.
Try this…
“C” drive (Local) …
Program Files (x86) for windows 7 or Program files for XP
“World of Warcraft”
“Cache”
“WDB”
“EnUS”
Drag the file to this location… Usuall defaults there nut some computers may have filters preventing sownloads to these file locations.
Hope this helps.
I’m having a pretty big problem with getting the NPCscan folders to the right place, considering there is no World of Warcraft file after I click Local Disc… The only one I can find is in Local disc/Users/Public/Games/World of Warcraft… And so on. I put the add-on in the WoW folder that I HAVE and NOTHING shows up inside of WoW. This is VERY agitating, considering I’ve been trying to find the solution to this problem for well over a few months.. any help would be GREATLY appriciated.
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Suppose the SilverDragon addon that i download doesn’t work. What can i do to make it work, or theres another addon just like it ….
Have you tried NPC Scan? And have you enabled your WoW to load outdated addons? Both addons haven’t been updated since Nov/Dec 2011 so I’m not too sure how stable they are now since I’m not currently subscribed to WoW sorry. Best thing to do is let the developer of the addons know they aren’t working (and be very specific with your problem and what you have personally tried to resolve it) and encourage them to update the addons 🙂 The promise of chocolate chip cookies may help.
hi, can i use silverdragon to replace npc scan or do i have to have both, thought of clearing cache sounds a lit frightening lol
Yes you can do that (I just use SilverDragon myself), if you use Handy Notes with it, then you can see spawn locations of rares too 🙂
Hi guys, sorry for the late response to your questions – will try and get them answered tonight.
so now i downloaded the npcscan will it auto pick up on rare pets or do i have to update…?
It will auto pick up rares – but only the ones that had been added by default by the program, which you can check by /npcscan command while in game. There are still quite a number of rares you will still need to add if you’re into more than just some pets.
So here we go again I got NPC scan installed. I went to the web and found the ID number for the camel figurine and then spent 2 hours looking for a place to enter it Bank, PVP, Spell book, nothing is now set toi accepot the number.
How or where do I enter the number so that the add-onn can find the item that I anm looking for
Sorry you’re probably not having this issue anymore, but just in case – have you watched a video in adding rares? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PUDlmzb-h4 is a good one as I mentioned in a reply above.
I have downloaded npcscan v4.2.0.2 and I’m not getting any custom rares, exept the ones I had already added. The mobs are in the .lua, but not showing ingame. Any help?
Are you still having this problem (I know very late reply!)
Hi Ian, what sort of trouble are you actually having? Can you not download it from the Curse site?
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Thanks for guide it truely helped me alot =)
I got curse like the page told me to, and looked up silver dragon, and clicked install. but when i log in to wow nothing changed. Is there another step that i’m missing?
If you installed post 4.1 you may need to select “Load out of date addons” from the Addons menu (button on bottom left) map or /silverdragon, then follow the instructions as per the post to load the creatures + change scan frequency.
I may have to give Silver Dragon a try, I’ve always heard about it, but now I’m rerunning some lower level content, and I’d like to get alerts for more mobs than NPCScan provides. Great info and explanation Anck!
Thank you 🙂 Hope you enjoy using SilverDragon!
it didnt work for me:( i tried every thing i put all npc on the addons folder now i type /npcscan nothing happens
Your query may have already been answered or you have moved on to SilverDragon but is the addon enabled via your startup screen – and what is the folder structure?
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Instead of configuring cc cleaner, you can also create a batch file. First, create a new text file. I named mine RemoveWowCache.txt. Then inside the file, type the location of your Cache folder. Mine is used below as an example.
RMDIR “C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\Cache” /s /q
Then rename the file to RemoveWowCache.bat
Then all you have to do is double click the file and it’ll automatically clear your Cache.
Keep in mind that removing the cache will also have some additional side effects. WoW uses the Cache to quickly load a lot of information for the user, such as which recipes you have learned when you open a given profession window, a lot of graphics and other basic information loaded upon log in. You won’t remove anything important, however you will have to suffer through increased load times when you first enter the game or attempt to use any profession.
In addition, I also highly recommend you download and install NPCScan Overlay. It’ll place a path on your map to make hunting rares much easier.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/npcscan-overlay.aspx
That’s a great idea too! I used CCleaner as an example, because it’s a great program for cleaning other cached things. In addition to your batch file idea, for others that will like to try it out. You could create a new file in your WoW folder where Launcher.exe is located (this is very important you place the file here) and name it Launcher.bat Launcher just right-click and select New then select any type of file, you just need to change the extention to .bat). Open this in Notepad (not Wordpad/Word), and paste the following:
del /s “C:\World of Warcraft\Cache\WDB\enUS\creaturecache.wdb”
START Launcher “C:\World of Warcraft\Launcher.exe”
Note: the actual path might differ depending to where you installed WoW and what version you use, US/EN.
You can duplicate the del line and add one for npccache.wdb too if you also want NPCs reset too (which I’m assuming is the right file :P)
You can’t apply a sexy icon to it, but if you create a shortcut to that batch file, then you can apple a sexy icon to it (icons can be used from the Launcher.exe or WoW.exe file).
In CCleaner, instead of deleting the whole Cache folder you can also set it to delete certain files only – so use the same steps but instead of selecting a folder, select file, and browse for “creaturecache.wdb”.
Oh yes NPC Scan overlay is great too – though I wish it had an ingame method of disabling some of the overlays – when hunting for Skoll I found it annoying showing the Time Lost Protodrake too – I memorized the spawn locations anyway so I could disable it. SilverDragon + HandyNotes works well together as it places the spawn locations on your map as small icons – that being said it can’t really show the paths the mobs walk/fly.
I’d like to add that you don’t HAVE to delete the file each time before starting the game if you simply change the file attribute to “read only” by right-clicking the file and then click “Properties” and place a tick mark in the “Read-Only” box. Once done, every time you exit the game, any NPCs that have been found are discarded because nothing can be written to the file. You will want to move your toon to a spot where there are no NPC hits first, exit the game, delete the file one last time, fire up the game to cause a clean, unmodified file to be created, exit the game again, change the file attribute to “read-only”, then you are done. You will always have a clean, unmodified file when you start your gaming session.
Thanks for this information. I have NPC Scan but have not been sure if it’s working since the game hates me and never spawns anything when I’m around. I would love to be tossed out of my chair by the warning horn at some point. =)
Ohh, well the first thing to do is use the Test Alert button in the NPC Scan settings – but to make sure it’s all working fine alert wise. Then I would suggest going around to other mobs which aren’t in high demand – I often find Hildana Deathstealer in Ice Crown or Grockler in Grizzly Hills. Now that people aren’t questing towards the end of Northrend, she might be best to track 🙂
Alternatively SilverDragon ^^ You’ll get alerts for so many rare mobs, maybe not always tossing out of chair material – but it’s always a nice feeling.
hey i loved your tutorial but when i try to add a monster to track the read plus will not light up so i can add it, it is not in a cache i deleted that but i cant find him plz help
Hi sorry for the late reply, thought I would take time out today to answer some questions (after decades) – how exactly are you adding the rare to track? There is a video here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PUDlmzb-h4 that describes how to do it – make sure you type it in correctly and select a location etc.