Install Minecraft Mods

This guide will hopefully show you how to install Minecraft client modifications (mods) on Windows 7 using 7-zip.

It should give you some clues how to go about the process on other operating systems and using tools other than 7zip, but for now, that is all we will cover.

Step 1: Get software to open and modify archives and the game files.

In this case, we are using 7-zip, which can be downloaded for free from here (or here for the 64 bit installer - ignore this if you don't know what that means).

Run the installer by double clicking on the file and press run/allow/OK wherever Windows warns you about running software:

Click next:

Read and agree to the terms of the licence:

You don't need to change anything here, (although advanced users may want to deselect the localisation files if they are a native English speaker):

Click install:

At this stage there is likely to be another Windows warning dialogue box; press accept/ok, then when the installation is complete, press finish:

Step 2: Download your mods

For this example we will be installing optifine - a mod aimed at making Minecraft run a little better. Its worth a try even if you have good hardware, as it gives loads of customisation options (like insane render distance), HD texture pack support and the handy zoom function.

Have a look through the various options to see which version suits you best. I am going for the multi-core edition:

Wait patiently through the advert and then click the link to download:

Step 3: Open the mod archive

Mods are typically distributed in .zip files. While Windows can cope with these, we might as well use 7-zip to open the archive, since we are going to be doing the same later with our minecraft.jar. Right click on the file you downloaded and chose 7-zip> Open archive :

You should end up with a window like this:

Step 4 : Locate and open the minecraft game files:

Open the run dialogue by pressing windows + r or type "run" into the start menu search and it should appear at the top for you to click on. Now, enter into the box "%appdata%\.minecraft\bin" (no quotes, obviously) and hit OK:

This should open up your Minecraft game files in Explorer. (It may be wise to make a shortcut to this somewhere to make this easier in the future):

Now, similarly to before, we will open the minecraft.jar file in 7-zip:

Giving us this window:

Step 5: Delete META-INF folder from minecraft.jar

Without doing this, the game will not load if you try to install the mods.

Right click on the META-INF folder and click delete, or select the folder and press the delete key:

...and hit ok on this dialogue box:

Step 6: Copy the files from the optifine .zip archive to the minecraft.jar archive:

You should still have both 7-zip windows open still. Now it is simply the case of putting the mod files into the game archive, just like copying files into another folder in windows.

Select all the files in the optifine 7-zip window (control + a, or Edit > Select all) and drag them into to the minecraft.jar:

and hit ok again:

And we are done! You can now close these windows and launch Minecraft in the same way as before.

To verify that the installation worked, try pressing the left control key in game, or press F3 and it should say which version of optifine you are running somewhere around the top left of the screen.

Really good guide Olly!
I stickied it for you

Texture packs come as a .zip file. You don't want to extract these, you simply place them in the "texturepacks" folder in your minecraft folder, then select them at the main menu in game (or even from the pause menu if you use optifine). HD Texture packs - those with a resolution greater than 16x16 pixels require a client mod (optifine will do), including my favourite, faithful 32x32.

I don't have a Mac, I know some of the other admins do, they might be able to help you better.

As far as I can tell, the process is basically the same except instead of 7zip or winrar, you can use the built in "Archive Utility" which works in a similar way, and that the location of your minecraft folder is /Users/<your username>/Library/Application Support/minecraft/

There are a few terrible videos on youtube about it, they might help you, but if all else fails post back here.

Also, Linux (gnome at least) users can use a similar method to windows, this time you'll be using "Archive Manager" aka "File Roller", which should come up if you right click on the .jar files. The minecraft folder is found in your home directory, /home/<username>/.minecraft

Again, ask here for Linux help, but I'm guessing if you're using it, you probably know what you're doing.

ugh, don't use the youtube videos for modding on a mac... spent 3 hours watching them before i gave up and started clicking random things and ended up getting it without following a guide... I wouldn't recommend using a video guide for port forwarding either.

Might have to switch to this.
Was using SK's Launcher before, but this looks much better.

Thanks for sharing, that looks really good! I like the automatic compatibility checking. Client modding is way too complicated a process considering the fundamental operation - placing class files inside what is essentially a .zip archive. It would be nice to see this built into the vanilla client some day.

I think Mojang owe a lot to the modding community. I for one couldn't see myself still playing the game without mods. I can't imagine the server without the Bukkit wrapper as well; it would certainly need to use whitelisting. From what I understand, some of the Bukkit staff are now working with Mojang.