A tour of the launcher

The window at a glance

Everything happens in one window. The main page has:

on the left, two panels: Server and Game;
on the right, four tabs: Overview, Console, Commands and Accounts;
at the bottom, a status line and the big PLAY button.

The buttons in the top left corner open the other pages: Settings, Plugins and Maintenance. The Plugins button shows a number when plugin updates are waiting. On any other page, ‹ Main takes you back. The list in the top right corner switches the launcher's language (see Languages).

The Server panel

The light and the text next to it say what the server is doing:

State	Light	Meaning
Stopped	red	nothing is running; press Start or PLAY
Starting	amber	reading the config and the databases
Loading	amber	loading the world, with a seconds counter
Running	green	login is open, you can play
Stopping	amber	saving characters before the server exits
Error	red	the server stopped with an error; the reason is shown under the title

Below the state:

Login (auth) and World, each with its port (3724 and 8085 unless you changed them in Settings). A dot turns green when that part accepts connections: login opens while the world is still loading, the world once it is ready. SOAP is listed only when you turned it on in Settings.
Uptime, Players online, Bots in the world, Memory (of the server process) and World latency (how long one world update takes on average). They show "—" until the world is running; memory is shown as soon as the server process runs.
Start (it reads Stop while the server runs) and Restart. Stop saves everyone and shuts the world down; Restart does the same and starts the server again once it has stopped. A restart asked for from the server itself (the Restart card on the Commands tab, or server restart in the console) also brings it back up; the Events list then says "Server restarting".

The Game panel

The path of your game folder, or "3.3.5a client not found".
One chip per language folder of your client (enGB, ruRU, ...). The filled gold chip is the launch language, the one the game starts in; click another chip to switch. The border colour tells you where that locale's realmlist.wtf points: green for this computer (127.0.0.1, or 127.0.0.1:<port> when you changed the Login port), amber for another address, red when it has none.
A short note under the chips, for example "The launch language is highlighted; 127.0.0.1 everywhere.", or a warning when Wow.exe is not version 3.3.5a (12340).
Browse… picks another game folder. It must contain Wow.exe and Data\common.MPQ.
Set realmlist writes set realmlist 127.0.0.1 (with :<port> for a login port other than 3724) into every locale that points somewhere else. The first time, the old file is kept as realmlist.wtf.bak.

The Overview tab

News: things that want your attention, each with a button. For example "Server data is not prepared yet" (Open the wizard), "Plugin updates available", "The server stopped with an error", "Latest backup" or "No backups yet".
Events (today): what happened, newest first: the server started, the world is ready, the game started or closed, a backup finished, a plugin was installed.
Four quick actions:

Action	What it does
Backup	backs up the databases, storing only what changed since the last backup
Save everyone	saves all characters to the database (the `saveall` command)
Announcement	opens the Commands tab at Chat announcement
Server folder	opens the server folder: configs, databases, logs

Save everyone and Announcement work while the world is running.

Console, Commands and Accounts

Console shows the server's log and takes commands. See Console and commands.
Commands has ready-made cards for common game master commands, in the same guide.
Accounts lists the game accounts and creates new ones. See Accounts and GM access.

All three need the world running to send anything.

The status line and PLAY

The line at the bottom shows the last message and what the launcher is busy with: "Installing…", "Preparing the client: plugin add-ons…", "Making a backup…", the server state, or "World open · players: 1 · bots: 100" when all is well. A bar moves while something is running.

The small text under PLAY tells you what pressing it will do:

Under the button	What happens
INSTALL · prepare the data	the setup wizard opens: the server data is not ready yet
choose the game folder	the button is off until a 3.3.5a client is found
start the server and the game	the server starts; the game opens when the world is loaded
the game opens when the world is loaded	you already pressed it; wait for the world
start Wow.exe	the world is running, the game starts at once
the server is stopping	wait until it has stopped

If a newer LonelyIce brought database updates, the first start after it brings the databases up to date first: the wizard's install page opens by itself, closes when it is done, and the start goes on.

Before the game starts, the launcher copies the add-ons your plugins bring into the client, points the launch language's realmlist at this computer, writes the launch language into WTF\Config.wtf (when you picked one) and clears the client cache (Cache\WDB). The realmlist and cache steps can be turned off in Settings › Launcher. If the game is already running, you get "The game is already running." instead.

The other pages

Settings: the server's rates, difficulty and network options, plugin settings, where the data is stored, and the launcher's own options. See Settings.
Plugins: installed plugins, updates and the package catalog. See Installing packages.
Maintenance has three sections:
- Server data: the databases and the game data the server uses, with their sizes. Setup wizard… runs the wizard again, Check files looks again, Change next to the storage opens Settings › Storage.
- Backups: the backups made so far, each with Export and Restore, plus Back up now and Open folder. See Backups.
- Logs: the server's log files. The live log is on the Console tab.

Tray icon and closing the window

LonelyIce puts an icon in the notification area. Right-click it for its menu: the server state, Open LonelyIce, Play, Start the server / Stop the server, Restart the server, shortcuts to the Console, Commands, Accounts and Settings, Back up now and Quit.

What the window's close button does depends on Closing the window minimizes to tray in Settings › Launcher (on by default):

On: the window hides, the server keeps running, and LonelyIce stays in the tray. Use Quit in the tray menu to really exit.
Off: closing the window quits.

When you quit while the server runs, the launcher shows "Stopping the server" while it saves characters and shuts the world down. Close the window again to stop the server at once, without waiting.

Two related options in Settings › Launcher: Start the server with the launcher and Quitting the game stops the server. Started as LonelyIce.exe --tray, the launcher begins hidden in the tray (when closing to tray is on).

Interface scale

The launcher picks a size that fits your screen on the first start. To change it, hold Ctrl and turn the mouse wheel (steps of 25 %, from 100 % to 200 %), or choose Interface scale in Settings › Launcher. The scale comes on top of the Windows display scale and is remembered.