Transfer or Copy Programs

[radioimage]

Here's my dilemma,, I've just purchased the C521 from dell, with the
availability to upgrade to Vista,,(I'm going to wait until the Service
pack comes out for it before I even think about upgrading), but my
problem is this, I'm going to try and transfer some programs, I've read
in a thread in the forum, that this can't be done.. the reason I'm
asking is I've moved recently and lost my startup discs to a couple of
programs, can't I just use a transfer program, and "copy" the program
files from one hard drive to the other without reinstalling the
programs? That would be too easy I suppose.. Any insight would be
greatly appreciated

Kind Regards,
Scott Larson

 

[Gordon]

Here's my dilemma,, I've just purchased the C521 from dell, with the
availability to upgrade to Vista,,(I'm going to wait until the Service
pack comes out for it before I even think about upgrading), but my
problem is this, I'm going to try and transfer some programs, I've read
in a thread in the forum, that this can't be done.. the reason I'm
asking is I've moved recently and lost my startup discs to a couple of
programs, can't I just use a transfer program, and "copy" the program
files from one hard drive to the other without reinstalling the
programs?

Sorry, no. A program install USUALLY puts lots of entries in the registry,
and you can't duplicate those.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Here's my dilemma,, I've just purchased the C521 from dell, with the
availability to upgrade to Vista,,(I'm going to wait until the Service
pack comes out for it before I even think about upgrading), but my
problem is this, I'm going to try and transfer some programs, I've read
in a thread in the forum, that this can't be done.. the reason I'm
asking is I've moved recently and lost my startup discs to a couple of
programs, can't I just use a transfer program, and "copy" the program
files from one hard drive to the other without reinstalling the
programs? That would be too easy I suppose.. Any insight would be
greatly appreciated

Kind Regards,
Scott Larson

Generally speaking, no, you cannot just copy the program files and have this
work. There are two reasons: first, not all files always go to the
program directory, and second, copying files does not take into account the
(sometimes many and varied) registry entries created by the install routine.
Without both of those, many programs will not launch, let alone run
reliably.

You will find it much easier and more reliable to rerun the program
installs.

HTH
-pk

 

[radioimage]

Thanks for your reply,, guess I'll be contacting the companies to get
replacement discs.

Thanks
s