Copying the registry

[jtieh]

I am trying to change the operating system on my grandson's computer from XP
Pro to XP Home without having to reload all of his games & such. A friend
told me that I could copy the registry, change the OS, and then paste the
copied registry in the new OS. This way all of the existing installations
would be restored.

Is this true? If so what is the file name of the Registry?

My goal is to uninstall my licensed XP Pro that I need to put into another
machine. I have obtained a licensed XP Home disc for my grandson's machine.

 

[Tom [Pepper] Willett]

Nope. Won't work.

Going from Pro to home requires a complete reformat, and you'll need all the
application disks to reload his programs.

:I am trying to change the operating system on my grandson's computer from
XP
: Pro to XP Home without having to reload all of his games & such. A friend
: told me that I could copy the registry, change the OS, and then paste the
: copied registry in the new OS. This way all of the existing installations
: would be restored.
:
: Is this true? If so what is the file name of the Registry?
:
: My goal is to uninstall my licensed XP Pro that I need to put into another
: machine. I have obtained a licensed XP Home disc for my grandson's
machine.
: --
: John Holbrook

 

[db ´¯`·.. >]

if your home edition is
new and not activated
then you can simply
do a repair installation
with it and the system
files will be downgraded
to the home version.

here are the instructions
on repair installation:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx

it is important to read
each screen during setup.
after the setup has scanned
your system, it will give you
the option of selecting a new
folder to install windows or
select the current folder on
the disk. selecting the current
folder is what you need to do.

keep in mind that if the home
cd you are going to use has
already been activated by
microsoft on another pc,
i would be a waste of time
to use it.

something that you should
also do is to make copies of
your documents and pictures
at this time and before you
proceed with this project.

that being said, you can
also make a backup of
the current registry hive
as you requested with a
program called erunt:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

you can direct the copy
it makes for you into a
folder on the disk and
then you can copy those
files onto a cd or into an
alternate partition.

here are the instructions for
manually restoring/replacing
the registry in windows:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

part one provides the steps,
keeping in mind to utilize
your copies instead of the
ones in windows\repair folder.

however, the repair installation
should preserve your registry.

so i would wait to see the results
of the installation and determine
afterwards if the registry needs
to be replaced.



--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I am trying to change the operating system on my grandson's computer from XP
Pro to XP Home without having to reload all of his games & such. A friend
told me that I could copy the registry, change the OS, and then paste the
copied registry in the new OS. This way all of the existing installations
would be restored.

Your friend, although probably well-meaning, is completely wrong.
There is no way to downgrade. The only way to get from Professional to
Home is by a clean installation, which means the loss of everything on
the drive.

Why do you want to do this? Are you aware that XP Home is a subset of
Professional? There's nothing in Home that isn't also in Professional,
so there can't be any advantage to doing this.

 

[David B.]

Tell your friend not to quit his day job, you'll need to reinstall all games
and apps, you can usually back up saved games before the format, see the
games support site for info on that.

 

[Unknown]

Read his post to ascertain his goal.

Your friend, although probably well-meaning, is completely wrong.
There is no way to downgrade. The only way to get from Professional to
Home is by a clean installation, which means the loss of everything on
the drive.

Why do you want to do this? Are you aware that XP Home is a subset of
Professional? There's nothing in Home that isn't also in Professional,
so there can't be any advantage to doing this.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Read his post to ascertain his goal.

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. I missed the last paragraph, which
said

"My goal is to uninstall my licensed XP Pro that I need to put into
another machine. I have obtained a licensed XP Home disc for my
grandson's machine."


jtieh, is your XP Professional copy a Retail one or an OEM one? If
it's retail, no, problem, you can do as you want (but as I said, you
need to do a clean installation of XP Home). But if it's OEM (for
example, if it came with the computer), be aware that you may *not* do
this. An OEM copy comes with several restrictions, the most severe of
which is that its license ties it permanently to the first computer
it's installed on. It can never legally be moved to another computer,
sold, or given away without that original computer.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

if your home edition is
new and not activated
then you can simply
do a repair installation
with it and the system
files will be downgraded
to the home version.

It's not possible to do a repair installation of WinXP Pro with a WinXP
Home disk. A complete format is necessary.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I am trying to change the operating system on my grandson's computer from XP
Pro to XP Home without having to reload all of his games & such. A friend
told me that I could copy the registry, change the OS, and then paste the
copied registry in the new OS. This way all of the existing installations
would be restored.

Is this true?

No, it's not true. You'd end up with an very unstable (and probably
unbootable computer. Never take that friend's advice (regarding
computers, at least) again.

Besides, the only way to change from WinXP Pro to WinXP Home is to
format the hard drive and start over. There is no supported downgrade
path or technique. So you'll have to reinstall all the the games and
applications from the original media, anyway.

After backing up any data you wish to transfer to the new OS
installation, simply boot from the WinXP Home installation CD. You'll
be offered the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as
part of the installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order
of boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

Then the backed up data can be restored and applications re-installed.

If so what is the file name of the Registry?

The WinXP registry can be found in C:\Windows\System32\Config\.
It'll be divided into several data files, such as Security, Software,
and System. The user-specific portion of the registry is stored in each
user profile, in a file named NTUser.dat.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[jtieh]

Thanks to all of you for your replies, even if some of them are a little
conflicting. I am going to try the repair route and see what happens. I
will be ready to flatten the drive if I have to.

For those who asked, the XP Pro is going on to my new Vista machine in a
dual-boot configuration. The XP home is supposed to be unregistered so it
should be OK. We'll see. I just had to get my grandson set up on a better
machine than he had because his newer games demand it.

Any final comments?