I am on Vista and that seems a gripe in this issue of getting the optimizer thing fixed as I got told others in my guild with Win 7 were able to play WoW after the optimizer so here how I got my stuff fixed since running the optimizer "SO FAR".

I do have to warn that it seems a slow process but SO FAR it's downloading the latest patch so I thought better to share my fixing solution so that is MAY help others in the same boat (and maybe it gives Blizzard clues to where it's going wrong too).

I first of all I DO NOT want to get accused of tampering with WoW files, I deleted simply the sort of files an average GM would suggest to delete and the way I did stuff was based on a US forum post that got listed by someone. Anyway enough chit chat and on with my post on what to do:

1) From the US forum post, delete the Launcher.exe then run your Repair tool and RESTART your PC.

2) When you're back up and running, go into your Temp folder and delete all its content, and do the SAME with contents of the Updates folder (I did not delete any other folder). Make sure you delete them from the Bin too!!!

3) Reboot your PC once more.

4) When your PC is back up and running, check for any needed updates to browsers (the US forum post said the game is optimized to work with latest IE so have that even if you use another browser for looking at this forum -- I use Google Chrome btw). Also go through all settings for your Firewall and make sure they are set for the recommended ports that Blizzard suggests to have open. Update any other system software as needed.

5) Now you've done all said in item 4 (and done reboots again if needed) you can go to doing the sorting out the game. Open your repair tool and run this now.

6) Once you've repaired and got the launcher.exe back which was deleted before, you want open your Launcher. IF for any reason it shows during the start of the download that it thinks you're behind a firewall, you want to try any of the above steps given again, and do this until you get a download bar WITHOUT the firewall message.

7) The process to get the data down is slow. At the time I am writing this, I got 100Mb down SO FAR. BUT the file should show up as 1.3Gb in size and after the red bar goes yellow it should say 15211 at the top of the Launcher window. I guess the rest of it is just sit and wait AND it does seem to only do the data downloading in short bursts BUT it is coming down. So step seven I guess is to learn the virtue of patience.

I will reply to this forum post I made once I got the game started up to confirm that this is a definite solution to attempt so if you don't want to try this just wait until I post, but if you do try it and you get playing, ask for a Sticky so it can be seen to be a solution to the Optimizer issue that's going on atm. I know the post sounds very non-technical but I still hope it helps.

Will keep everyone posted on progress with one further post once I can play again!!!

Disclaimer: this post and its solution assumes you have Vista, IE9, Panda AVPro antivirus/firewall software, that all your drivers are up to date, and that you are someone with the patience of a saint (no not really needed but throwing that PC thru the window in a rage don't get your game working either you know).