The thing is, I haven't been able to update or start my wow from the launcher since Cataclysm was launched. I had to go to the game files and click on the wow icon there to do it. I start downloading patches by trying to log in the game, which then starts the download and restarts the game. If I do it via launcher, it just complains about internal game errors.

However, now I tried to download the patch the same way, it just starts up the launcher when I click on the wow icon from the game files. Naturally all I get is internal wow errors or "your game installation is damaged, please run repair". Running repair of course finds nothing as it never has.

So is there a way to disable the launcher without starting up the game? Or an alternative source to download the patch without the launcher?