My POS laptop went to the bathroom and is currently getting ready to drop a load. It probably because I believe I haven't touched this Vista installation since January of 07. Needless to say, I'm needing to run the recovery. However, I would like to save some specific programs with their registry entries (for settings, etc.) to save a ton of time. My question is if there is anything I can use. I believe Windows records what entries each program makes to the registry so is there something I can use to copy those? Then I can just copy off the program files and program data folders to the new installation along with the registry keys. This would be extremely helpful when I have Visual Studio, Adobe CS3 (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash), and some odds and ends ones. I'm needing to do this soon as this installation is getting unbearably slow. I appreciate any help. Thanks.
The 2 programs are softrescue and laplink pcmover, both software are designed to backup and restore programs with there registry entries from one OS to another OS. They won't transfer security software (firewalls/antivirus/antispyware programs). The demo of softrescue will analyze your computer and tell you what programs it can transfer. It would be a good idea to make an image backup of your c: drive, before you do the recovery. There is free imaging software (macrium reflect) that can do an image backup for you. That way in case the recovey doesn't work, you can at least go back to square one.
