Searching for a Tool for "Program Configurations Backup/Restore" please.

Alexander1970 · Jan 20, 2021

Hello.

I am searching for a Tool like CloneApp / PickMeApp / EaseUS Todo PCTrans
Not for Windows/Network Configurations,for Program/Tools Setups/Configurations please.

Thank you for your Help.

FAST6191 · Jan 20, 2021

I am not entirely sure what you are asking for there. You list a bunch of tools which attempt to copy program setups over between computers/installs and it seems like you want more of those. Those are most of the main ones
https://alternativeto.net/software/cloneapp/ has some more.
If you want to get a bit more granular and maybe just fish out passwords and setups then http://www.nirsoft.net/ has a whole bunch of good stuff here.

Other than popular browsers, email clients, office suites and the like then most times I find you still end up having to do some manual fiddling, and accounting for different versions of programs, even more so if you have older versions installed on the original machine (between copying settings and having an easy life with https://ninite.com/ when installing a new machine I so much prefer the latter).

Beyond that to work then the backup program has to know where every config file, registry entry, saved game and whatever else it uses could be (there is sometimes a difference in many cases between fresh install and "just how I like it") for every version it expects to encounter (hopefully they have a simple upgrade pathway if you have a newer version on the new machine) and to grab that. Do some stuff for legacy programs (can be in program files, appdata, random file in my documents, registry not its own) and stuff with DRM and it only gets worse.

That said other than fonts, email, web browser and maybe office setups do you need much else on the config side of things?
For mozilla based stuff then I usually went with
http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ though it is starting to not work so well with some new versions.
Can usually make Chrome based stuff pull history, cookies, sometimes passwords, bookmarks and search data from Mozilla as well so I find that more reliable in a lot of cases.

If I need serious big boy cloning then I am already deploying at OS level ( http://techgenix.com/building-custom-windows-10-image/ ), or maybe making a container*/virtual machine to do it.

*windows containers are not as fun as some of the Linux ones but the very thing that allows you to have something like sandboxie does allow you some measure of fun here.

godreborn · Jan 20, 2021

It's not exactly practical, but I keep a windows image backup of my system. It takes about 30 minutes to restore my whole system thanks to my ssd.

Alexander1970 · Jan 20, 2021

FAST6191 said:
I am not entirely sure what you are asking for there. You list a bunch of tools which attempt to copy program setups over between computers/installs and it seems like you want more of those. Those are most of the main ones
https://alternativeto.net/software/cloneapp/ has some more.
If you want to get a bit more granular and maybe just fish out passwords and setups then http://www.nirsoft.net/ has a whole bunch of good stuff here.

Other than popular browsers, email clients, office suites and the like then most times I find you still end up having to do some manual fiddling, and accounting for different versions of programs, even more so if you have older versions installed on the original machine (between copying settings and having an easy life with https://ninite.com/ when installing a new machine I so much prefer the latter).

Beyond that to work then the backup program has to know where every config file, registry entry, saved game and whatever else it uses could be (there is sometimes a difference in many cases between fresh install and "just how I like it") for every version it expects to encounter (hopefully they have a simple upgrade pathway if you have a newer version on the new machine) and to grab that. Do some stuff for legacy programs (can be in program files, appdata, random file in my documents, registry not its own) and stuff with DRM and it only gets worse.

That said other than fonts, email, web browser and maybe office setups do you need much else on the config side of things?
For mozilla based stuff then I usually went with
http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ though it is starting to not work so well with some new versions.
Can usually make Chrome based stuff pull history, cookies, sometimes passwords, bookmarks and search data from Mozilla as well so I find that more reliable in a lot of cases.

If I need serious big boy cloning then I am already deploying at OS level ( http://techgenix.com/building-custom-windows-10-image/ ), or maybe making a container*/virtual machine to do it.

*windows containers are not as fun as some of the Linux ones but the very thing that allows you to have something like sandboxie does allow you some measure of fun here.

Thank you.

The Main Goal:

Transfer Settings/Configurations from a lot of installed Applications.

for Example:

A Tool for managing Fans/Temperatures from the PC (like Speedfan for Example)
It needs special Adjustments depending on the Mainboard Chips/Fans and so on.
It saves the Settings in the Registry and an .XML File

Now "imagine" you have 30-40 such Programs/Tools,it is a very "annoying" Work after a fresh,new Windows 10 Installlation to configure all this Tools.

There comes CloneApp,it needs Plug Ins for the different Programs to work correctly.A good Tool/Start.
Same for "PickMeApp",it needs "Workarounds" for Example Photshop CS to work correctly.Also a good Tool.

Last is EaseUS Todo PCTrans with its "App Migration" Option.

And that´s really all ?

FAST6191 · Jan 20, 2021

Every application is different.
Modern Windows tries to enforce standards and will force things to use lower privilege level parts of the registry, put user changed things in appdata (whether local or locallow or both might vary) and other such things.
Older programs, programs that need access to system files or programs made by devs that don't care are a whole different kettle of fish. These can have programs edit data in "program files" (even older stuff might not even use program files as much as a directory on the root of the drive), install things to the windows directories, install things all over the registry other than their basic files, install things into random directories in my documents, install things into random directories in user files and on and on and on.

You can try doing it yourself -- various tools will be available that you can install programs with and note all the changes they make/OK every change/scan for every change for a complete uninstall. This is arguably the first step in malware analysis for a lot of things so it is fairly well developed, though I don't have a toolkit I can link to hand (I don't normally need anything so drastic -- between virtual machines, programs like ofview https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html , tools that note what files attach to what , things to analyse the registry both after the fact and opened keys https://www.nirsoft.net/windows_registry_tools.html , uninstall programs like https://www.revouninstaller.com/ I get most of what I need done).
This being how most will attempt to make those plugins for the various programs. For the effort though, especially if you also have to configure it for a new system, then I do wonder if it is not worth just biting the bullet and doing a new install.
There is a philosophy when it comes to installing computers that you only install a program on a new computer when you want to use it. I don't necessarily agree with it fully (especially when I have ninite and co to install things painlessly) but there is some wisdom there. Not to mention in modern times then most people seem to be in the browser 90% of the time which means it has been a while since anybody has had 30-40 do or die non standard applications.

Alexander1970 · Jan 20, 2021

Thank you.

FAST6191 said:
Every application is different.
Modern Windows tries to enforce standards and will force things to use lower privilege level parts of the registry, put user changed things in appdata (whether local or locallow or both might vary) and other such things.
Older programs, programs that need access to system files or programs made by devs that don't care are a whole different kettle of fish. These can have programs edit data in "program files" (even older stuff might not even use program files as much as a directory on the root of the drive), install things to the windows directories, install things all over the registry other than their basic files, install things into random directories in my documents, install things into random directories in user files and on and on and on.

You can try doing it yourself -- various tools will be available that you can install programs with and note all the changes they make/OK every change/scan for every change for a complete uninstall. This is arguably the first step in malware analysis for a lot of things so it is fairly well developed, though I don't have a toolkit I can link to hand (I don't normally need anything so drastic -- between virtual machines, programs like ofview https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html , tools that note what files attach to what , things to analyse the registry both after the fact and opened keys https://www.nirsoft.net/windows_registry_tools.html , uninstall programs like https://www.revouninstaller.com/ I get most of what I need done).
This being how most will attempt to make those plugins for the various programs. For the effort though, especially if you also have to configure it for a new system, then I do wonder if it is not worth just biting the bullet and doing a new install.
There is a philosophy when it comes to installing computers that you only install a program on a new computer when you want to use it. I don't necessarily agree with it fully (especially when I have ninite and co to install things painlessly) but there is some wisdom there. Not to mention in modern times then most people seem to be in the browser 90% of the time which means it has been a while since anybody has had 30-40 do or die non standard applications.

The Request is not for me (as you said,who has over 40 Applications installed... :rofl2:

).

But this Ninite looks interesting (also for myself.)

Thank you.

Searching for a Tool for "Program Configurations Backup/Restore" please.

XP not matters.

Techromancer

Welcome to the Machine

XP not matters.

Techromancer

XP not matters.

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