Manual Installation On Windows

Caution

We strongly recommend to use the IW4x Launcher described in the Quickstart Guide.
It’s the easiest and most reliable way to install and keep IW4x up to date
However, if you prefer to install IW4x manually, you can follow the steps outlined below.
Important: If you manually install IW4x, you’ll need to repeat all of these steps each time a new update is released.

1. Find Modern Warfare 2 installation

Iw4x needs to be installed in the same directory where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is installed.
Usually, the path to this directory is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

If you have trouble to find the install directory, you can use your Steam Library as help:

1. Open Steam and go to your LIBRARY

2. Right-click on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) - Multiplayer

3. Select Manage > Browse local files

2. Download IW4x

Once you’ve located the Modern Warfare 2 game directory, you can download the latest release version of iw4x.dll from the GitHub repository and save it to this directory.

Download iw4x.dll

3. Download Raw Files

The raw files are additional assets like maps, weapons, and scripts that enhance your IW4x experience.
Like in the previous step, download and save the latest release version into your game directory.

Download iw4x.exe Download release.zip

You’ll find several more downloads on GitHub, but the most important ones are:

• iw4x.exe - A custom version of the original iw4mp.exe, designed to load iw4x.dll (downloaded in the previous step)
• release.zip - Contains all required extra assets for IW4x

Additional files you may encounter:

• zonebuilder.exe - A tool for creating custom assets and mods
• update.json - Used by the launcher for update tracking, can be ignored
• Several files with the .iwd extension (e.g. iw4x_00.iwd)

The .iwd files contain optional DLC content, including Nuketown from Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010) and the classic maps from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2007).

IW4x will work without them, but you can download them too if you want to play on these DLC maps.
Just make sure to move them into the iw4x/ directory, or the game won’t recognize them.

The iw4x/ directory doesn’t exist yet, that’s because the files in release.zip need to be extracted first.
The easiest way to do so is to select release.zip and then:

1. Click on Compressed Folder Tools

2. Click on Extract all

3. Click on Extract

   Make sure to extract them to the root directory of your game folder (not in an additional release sub-folder).

4. Delete release.zip

Install using PowerShell

Info

You can skip this section if you’ve already completed the previous steps, or if you’re unfamiliar with the terminal.
The instructions below simply show how to perform the same steps using PowerShell.

1. cd into the game directory

   cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2"

2. Download iw4x.dll

   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-client/releases/latest/download/iw4x.dll

3. Download iw4x.exe

   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x.exe

4. Download release.zip

   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/release.zip

5. Extract release.zip

   Expand-Archive release.zip -DestinationPath .

6. Delete release.zip

   Remove-Item release.zip

7. Download .iwd files

   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_00.iwd iw4x
   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_00.iwd iw4x
   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_01.iwd iw4x
   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_02.iwd iw4x
   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_03.iwd iw4x
   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_04.iwd iw4x
   Start-BitsTransfer -source https://github.com/iw4x/iw4x-rawfiles/releases/latest/download/iw4x_05.iwd iw4x