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General Mod Management

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Keeping your Minecraft mods organised and easy to find

Once you start installing mods, adding more mods, trying to un-install mods, fixing your minecraft installation because of mods… not to mention creating worlds, adding textures, etc… your minecraft installation directory can become really messy and confusing.

Try to follow this guideline so that you keep on top of your modding changes and don’t end up needing to wipe everything and start again!

This is only relevant if you install mods manually. If you use the Modgician program to install mods, you don’t need to follow this tutorial.

Setting Up Your Desktop

Installing Minecraft

We’re going to assume that you’ve already have bought, downloaded and ran the Minecraft game. If not, head over to www.minecraft.net, pay your money, download it and run it!

Making everything easily accessible from the Desktop

Once you’ve got Minecraft running, lets setup everything you’ll need to make modding easier.

  • Press and hold the Start button on your keyboard while you press the “R” key
  • Type in %appdata%, then click OK
  • Right-click on the .minecraft folder > click on Send To > click on Desktop (create shortcut)
  • Close the AppData/Roaming window that you’ve just opened

You’ll now have a shortcut on your desktop called “.minecraft – Shortcut”. From here on we’ll be referring to this shortcut as “.minecraft folder“.

Where to run the Minecraft program from

Most people download the Minecraft application onto the desktop and run it from there. There is no problem in doing this and it’s probably the easiest way to do things.

However, you may prefer to have a shortcut to the game on your desktop and keep the Minecraft application with the rest of the Minecraft files that the game sets up. An advantage of doing this is that desktop items sometimes get moved around by the “ever-reliable” (ha-ha) Windows operating system, or bugs/viruses delete/change/infect/move things. It’s up to you where you run it from, if you’d prefer running from a shortcut on the desktop follow these steps…

  • Right-click on the Minecraft application icon (where ever it might be) > click on Cut
  • Double-click on your newly created desktop shortcut ‘.minecraft – Shortcut’
  • Right-click in an empty spot in the window > click on Paste
  • Right-click on the Minecraft program file you’ve just pasted > click on Send To > click on Desktop (create shortcut)

You’ll now have a shortcut on your desktop called “Minecraft.exe – Shortcut” and you can use this to run your Minecraft game.

Setting up mod download location

Everytime you download a mod, it is best to store it in an organised way, so that you know exactly where your mods are and what version of Minecraft they are for.

  • Right-click in an empty spot on the Desktop > click on New > click on Folder
  • Type in the name “Mod Downloads” > press Enter
  • Double-click on the newly created Mod Downloads folder to open it
  • Right-click in the empty window > click on New > click on Folder
  • Type the name of the Minecraft version you are using, e.g. “1.1” or “1.2.3”

Your Mod Downloads folder should look like this...

This is the location that you will save any downloaded mods to. When you upgrade your Minecraft version, you will need to create a new folder in the Mod Downloads folder and with the name of the new version of Minecraft.

The rest of the tutorial is only relevant if you still use the OLD Minecraft launcher. If you use the new/latest launcher to run Minecraft you do not need to read any further.

Create ‘mods’ folder

Some mods require a ‘mods’ folder within the .minecraft folder to put certain files into, so you might as well create than now so it’s ready to go…

  • Open the .minecraft folder
  • Right-click in an empty spot in the window > click on New > Folder
  • Type in the name “mods” > press Enter on the keyboard

Setting up minecraft.jar archive area

This will be an area that you archive your minecraft.jar file to so that you can restore it later if you need to.

  • Open the .minecraft folder > double-click on the ‘bin’ folder
  • Right-click in an empty spot in the window > click on New > click on Folder
  • Type in the name “jar archive” > press Enter

Setting up minecraft.jar core mod area

This is a folder where you will keep a version of the original minecraft.jar file with only the core mods installed into it. The reason you need this is because you will no doubt want to change your modded minecraft configuration and pull some mods out. This will allow you to ‘start again’ but already have the core mods installed so it’s much quicker to get a new mod configuration going. After this tutorial, you’ll do the actual core mod installs, but for now we’ll just setup the folder where you’ll keep this core-mod ready jar file.

  • Open the .minecraft folder > double-click on the ‘bin’ folder
  • Right-click in an empty spot in the window > click on New > click on Folder
  • Type in the name “jar with core mods” > press Enter

Organise icons on Desktop

This might seem a bit anal, but honestly, who needs to spend and extra 10 seconds scanning through all the junk on the desktop to find what you need!

  • On your desktop, Grab your Minecraft shortcut (or program) and the .minecraft folder shortcut and drag them to a clean area of the desktop so they’re easy to find.

Checking your work

Pretty simple instructions above we know, but it’s good to be sure because the tutorials on this site will assume you have set up your Minecraft environment like this.

Your desktop icons should look something like this…

Your Minecraft Desktop Shortcuts should look a little like this...

Your .minecraft folder should look something like this…

Your .minecraft folder should look this this

Your bin folder should look something like this…

Your Minecraft bin folder should look like this

Well that’s it… your minecraft environment is now structured and organised.

Please leave any comments, questions or suggestions in the box below.

Browser Download Location Settings

The first step in installing mods is of course to download the mod. When doing this, it’s important to understand where your browser will save the file.

Many browsers automatically download items to a specified folder. Most browsers will allow you to change this location and some browsers can be setup so that it asks you each time where to save the download.

Which way you go with this is entirely up to you. The important thing is that you know where your downloads are after you download them!

Here some steps to take for a couple of common browsers to check/change the download location.

Internet Explorer

  • Click on Tools > click on View Downloads
  • In the bottom left hand corner of the window that pops up, click on Options
  • The download location will be listed in the box, to change it click Browse… > navitagte to your preferred location > click Select Folder > Click OK
  • (it seems that Internet Explorer 9 doesn’t allow the option of asking you where to save the download each time)

Mozilla Firefox

  • Click on Tools > click on Options
  • The Downloads options are on the General tab
  • To change the download location, click Browse > navigate to your preferred folder > click it once > click OK
  • To have the browser ask you each time where to save it, tick the option ‘Always ask me where to save files’

Google Chrome

  • Click on the Spanner, (wrench) icon in the top right of the browser window
  • The download options are in the “under the bonnet” tab
  • Under ‘Download location” tick the “ask where to save each file before downloading” box

If you have your browser set to downloading to a specific location, then you will need to copy the downloaded mod from the location into your minecraft structure.

If you have your browser set to asking you where to download, then when you download the mod, you can save it directly into the correct location within the Mod Downloads folder.

Jar with Core Mods

This section is only relevant if you still use the OLD Minecraft launcher. If you use the new/latest launcher to run Minecraft you do not need to read this section.

Setting up a minecraft.jar with with the core mods installed makes it heaps easier to ‘fix’ if you break your minecraft.jar configuration. This normally happens by installing mods that don’t work together, or just simply incorrectly installing mods.

After you have installed the core mods, you will need to make a copy of the minecraft.jar file and put it in the ‘jar with core mods’ folder. This way, if your main minecraft.jar file breaks, you can just chuck it in the bin and replace it with a copy of the minecraft.jar from the ‘jar with core mods’ folder. Then you’ll only need to add the effect mods that you want, instead of having to go through the process of installing all the required core mods as well.

Program to open .zip and .jar files

Installing and managing Minecraft mods requires you to have a program designed for opening archive files.

There are heaps of them available like WinRAR, 7-ZIp, BetterZip, WinZip, File Roller, and tons more. We use and recommend 7-Zip. It’s been around since 1999, is free (at least for all the requirement of minecraft modding), integrates nicely with Windows, has a 64-bit option and is simple to use.

The 7-Zip website is here… www.7-zip.org and the download links are at the top of the page. If you have a 64-bit system, then download the 64-bit version, otherwise grab the 32-bit version. Just follow the prompts to install 7-Zip on your system.

Removing Mods Overview

This section is only relevant if you still use the OLD Minecraft launcher. If you use the new/latest launcher to run Minecraft you do not need to read this section.

When it comes to removing mods from a minecraft installation, it’s fair to say that it is tedious work with a relatively low success rate.

The procedure involves removing the individual class (and other) files from the minecraft.jar file and replacing some or all of them with the original class files which you would have to copy out of a clean minecraft.jar file. Whilst this is entirely possible, it can be exhausting and if you make one small mistake, you may have to start all over again with a fresh install of Minecraft!

So, we recommend not to try and remove mods, but instead to archive the working minecraft.jar file and start again with a pre-core modded jar file. That way, you are going to be sure that you won’t waste a bunch of time trying to remove/fix your configuration.

So, the procedure would go something like this… (don’t actually do this now, it’s just an example)

  • Rename your minecraft.jar file to something like: “minecraft.jar.2012-01-28” (putting the date on the end will help you to identify individual jar archives if you ever want to restore that configuration)
  • Move the renamed jar file to the ‘jar archive’ folder that you created within the bin folder
  • Copy the Core Mod Jar file from the “.minecraft/bin/core mod jar file/” folder and place it in the “.minecraft/bin/” folder
  • Install the effect mods that you want for your new configuration

This may seem to take a little time to achieve, but we can tell you after countless hours of trying to fix jar configs that this is a sure, definite way to go and you know you’ll have a working minecraft game at the end of it.

Now that you have an understanding of the overview of successful modding, please follow the tutorials in the Core Mods section to install all the core mods into your minecraft.jar file, then follow the Backing Up Core Mod Jar file tutorial. Then, you’ll be ready to add all the effect mods you want!

If you have any questions/comments about this section, please use the comments box below. Cheers.

51 Comments

  1. My minecraft is not in my .minecraft shortcut therefore my .minecraft does not look like the example does this madder?

    • Where is your minecraft installed then?

  2. I have been trying for almost 5 days to install Mo Creatures and i have followed all your great help but i still cant get them to com out to play…… I have also reinstalled mincrafte.exe many times and now i have no config file. Is this stopping it working????? Please someone give me some help im going crazy. Thanks

    • Which config file are you referring it?
      If you do a fresh install of Minecraft 1.2.5, then install the dependency mods: ModLoader, AudioMod, GuiAPI, Custom Mob Spawner, then install Mo Creatures, delete META-INF from the minecraft.jar folder, it should work. But make sure you test after installing each mod to make sure MC is still working.

      • Hello! ! Thanks for the reply… The folder is located under the bin folder in .minecraft – i have followed the instructions step by step on the tool kit section and read all the info re Core mods etc. Not running Minecraft deleted METAINF. I have done everything – even checked each time to test MC is working but there are NO creatures in MO creatures. There must be something i am doing wrong. Have windows 7 new clean copy Java 34 (is this a problem)? Driving me crazy. Can not just leave it Need to beat this computer. Thank you 🙂

        • i have the same problem -___- can u help me?

          • @crstaco29
            Sure, is minecraft crashing or are the creatures just not showing?
            Have you installed all the dependency mods?

      • MO Creatures are out to play…Hello again! Just an update on my other reply….Success !!!!!! FINALLY Mo Creatures Has Mo Creatures. I don’t know what i did any differently than before for the past 6 days but it works. Thanks again. My son is over the moon and thinks i’m a computer wiz. I prob am a wiz now. Someone should give me a job on the MC help desk. Thank you Thank you. Thank you. Over and out…:-)

        • Hey confusedModer
          Nice work! That’s exactly how I started, spending too many hours trying to install mods. A year later here we are…
          Stay tuned for some cool updates coming out soon, will make things much easier.

  3. hi i just found this site ive deleted all minecraft off to start again now i have no config file wth

    • @DragonDeathEater
      Which config file do you mean?

  4. When I checked to make sure my .minecraft folder looked like the folder i had no config file is that a problem?

    • @theoneghost
      Yes, that’s fine. That gets created if/when it is needed.

  5. Thanks this website is just amazing I’ve been trying to install Equivalent Exchange for days this was a lifesaver

  6. @theoneghost
    Glad it’s helped you. We’ve just updated the download link to the latest version of Equivalent Exchange, so you may want to update to that one.

    • @maxcola55
      Depends on the mod. You need to pick a mod on the site and follow the instructions.

  7. I think this site needs a forum, where we can ask for help there, so that HERE, in comments, we can give feedback on a mod.

    A forum would be nice because there really isn’t a specific place meant for people who want to give suggestions, suggestions like:
    you’re missing the human+ mod.

    • @Izual Zephyr
      Yes, we will be adding a forum and mod suggestion page at some stage. We still have our own list of mods that we are getting added to the site. Once that’s finished, then we’ll open it up for suggestion.

  8. Hello modgician team. I’ve got a problem, and some help would really be appreciated.

    My minecraft crashed the other day, so I fixed it as normal. But now I have put all the files from Forge, ModLoader, ModLoaderMP, Too Many Items, and another mod into my minecraft.jar file, and the mods don’t show up in minecraft. I can’t understand why, as it has worked before. Some help would really be appreciated!

    Thanks!

    • @Captain_Mayday
      Howdy, are you able to start again with a fresh install of MC then install the mods in the following order, TESTING after each one…

      TMI
      ModLoader
      ModLoaderMP
      Forge

  9. I followed every instruction to the letter, put all the files in and deleted META-INF. And still no mod. I am compleatly stumped. I would love some help!

    • Just to clarify, I put in only the files from TMI, then tested it on minecraft, and there was no mod. I have’nt tried the others yet.

      • @Captain_Mayday
        So, after installing TMI, when you press ‘E’ on the keyboard in a game, you can’t see a massive list of items?

          • @Captain_Mayday
            OK, then after you install TMI, keep the minecraft.jar file open and search through the files and find each file that was copied over from the TMI zip file and double check that the file sizes are the same.

  10. I made new folder called Minecraft so I store my two shortcuts and a Mod Downloads folder on desktop. My minecraft username is minecraftstar666, not samurottleader8538.

  11. i try to install forge for 1.3.1 but it freezes at the updating minecraft update complete screen how do i fix this

    • @vatofrog
      Forge hasn’t been release yet for 1.3.1
      No word yet on release date for it but there were some major changes required so hang tight for a while.

  12. Where is the start button on my keyboard lol? I have a macbook pro and have never come across a start button before.

    • @bridger22
      Ha Ha, yeah sorry man, we only do Windows at the moment. What I can tell you is that you shouldn’t use the native archive program on Macs, it doesn’t Merge compressed files. So you should download a 3rd party program for handling the compressed files.

  13. So, the set of ‘core mods’ to have in your .jar file as to complete the modding environment, is that all the mods included in the ‘core mods’ section of this site, and if so, what order to install them? Or is it just TMI, modloader, modloader MP and forge as the recommended set of core mods?

    Sorry if this is stated somewhere else. I couldn’t find the next step about what core mods to install to complete the set-up ready for easier modding…

    • Where are the “Core Mod tutorials including Creating a Core Mod Jar file backup” that are referred to in the “installing mods” tab of the toolkit / set-up guide? It seems this is the missing piece to get the modding environment set up correctly. Can’t find it on the site…

    • @sirdadrose
      Great question.
      Because of the major changes in 1.3.2 (assuming thats what you’re running) I would only install TMI & Forge as “core” mods. ModLoader & ModLoaderMP and very rarely needed anymore because of the upgrades done to Forge.
      If you’re on 1.2.5, then yes, install in this order: ModLoader, ModLoaderMP, Forge, TMI.
      Cheers

  14. Help PLEASE!? when I create a shortcut for my .minecraft folder and I open it nothing is inside except for the minecraft shortcut.. what do I do?! also theres a bin folder but theres nothing in that either?! what do I do?

    • @ObEPiGSLAYER
      Weird, double check the instructions and make sure you’vedoneit correctly.
      If there’s nothing in the bin file, then re-run Minecraft and it should download the files it needs.
      Let me know if you still have trouble.

  15. Thank you for all your help I really appreciate all this help and information.
    Keep it up,
    InfiniteTuba82

    • @gunkillers
      Which link in particular are you looking for?

  16. Seem to be missing section called “Core Mods” section with its tutorials. Is it under some other name?

  17. Hello Modman, I am hoping you can help me. My 9 yr. old son has been asking for mods for weeks. After countless hours and days on YouTube and only one successful mod upload I am ready to give up. I was over the moon to find your site but see it is all Windows based. We are using Mac OS X. Am I still able to install? We have tried to install a few mods and have not had any success. I am clueless and do not know where to start….

    • @yoda101110
      Hi yes we now support Mac & Linux. Some of the instructional pages on our site still only apply to Windows, but our Mod Installer software definitely works great on Windows, Mac & Linux.

      • We are so close!! We were able to install and import 1.7.2 Damage ind. & Forge Dependency. Now we launch Minecraft and it loads but does not play from both Modgician and our desktop. We tried rebooting and still have the same issue. We can change the Profile and it does launch and play Minecraft with our manually added TMI. Please help 🙂 Thank you!

        • @yoda101110
          With Damage Indicators it should have asked you to install both Forge and the Forge Dependency. Can you please confirm that both of these are installed?
          Also, it’s best to use the support tab in the Modgician application as you will get a much quicker response than posting in here.


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