Gaming Question about installed programs.

[Rubedo]

Lets say I install a program or a game to my PC, but want to make a backup of my data, but have already deleted the installer/totally-legit iso.
If I were to backup the entire directory to a disc and at some point, uninstall the program/lose the data to a virus or something, could I copy that directory back to it's original location and load everything normally? Or is there something special about the installation process that would be lost?

 

[aiRWaLKRe]

99.99% of games add registry entries so it wont work if you reformat and have lost the windows registry. If you use the uninstaller you would also lose the registry entries. Then some games add files to the "my documents" for save files.

EDIT- meant to say programs and games, not just games

 

[mysticwaterfall]

As aiRWaLKRe says above, things tend to add crap to the registry and numerous other places.

The only way to have a backup that will work without you having to reinstall stuff is to clone your hard drive (also called "ghosting") and then restore the clone if something happens. Note this replaces everything. Numerous programs do this, both free and paid.

 

[Rydian]

As said there's registry entries, but also data can be kept in multiple locations (for example settings and save files are often in the %appdata% location), there could be some system changes, blah blah blah.

Depends on the program.

 

[mysticwaterfall]

I've thought about this some more, and theoretically you could install the program in Sandboxie, which would keep everything contained. You could then backup the sandbox for it and just restore that. Haven't tried it, so I'm not exactly sure if it would work, and not everything works with Sandboxie to begin with. But it's a thought.

 

[Fishaman P]

I give it a 99% chance that this guy is actually trying to transfer games from one computer to another illegally.

 

[ByteMunch]

I give it a 99% chance that this guy is actually trying to transfer games from one computer to another illegally.

...so?