It's usually true, but there are exceptions.  I'll give common examples of all
of them.  They all work in the same way:  Many applications still store the
configuration parameters which interest the user in .ini files, or in text
files which behave like .ini files but which have proprietary extensions.

1.  Some applications are still completely independent of the registry.  These
are often small utilities.  Since reinstalling Win98, my Arkosoft System
Snapshot 1.1, a freeware system change monitor, still works fine, without
reinstalling.  Also OuterTech Cache Manager, also a million others of the same
ilk.  TradeTrakker.  All versions of NoteTab and Mailbag Assistant, unless you
have configured them to use the registry.

2.  Many need to be registered to function, but store their user
configurations locally, so that they will have to be reinstalled, but not
reconfigured.  WS_FTP Pro.  Opera browser.

3.  Similarly, some seem to use the registry only for obscure functions which
noone ever uses anyway, or only for stages in the installation routine
designed to prevent software theft.  Once installed, for practical purposes
they will run fine with no registry entries.  Beiley Fund Manager 5.

3.  Many smaller apps and utilities don't use the registry for anything
important, but if you do a clean reinstall of Windows without preparation you
are going to have to reinstall them anyway, since they use .dlls, ocxs, etc.,
or new versions of standard ones, which aren't included in Windows.
Unless....

The solutions:

A.  Face up to the fact that if you do a clean reinstall of Windows, many of
your apps are going to have to be reinstalled and reconfigured.

B.  Before you reinstall, copy your entire Windows folder to another drive.
This will preserve many .dlls, .inis, etc.  Also all of the system files in
your root directory.  You may need some information in them to make
reinstalling apps easier later, especially if the apps are older.

C.  With apps like NoteTab and Mailbag Assistant, use their internal options
to store your user parameters locally before you reinstall.

D.  Do a clean reinstall of Windows.

E.  Try each app.
First example:  WS_FTP Pro.  Dead as a doornail.  It belongs to category 2.
Before reinstalling it to get its innards properly registered, copy the WS_FTP
program folder to someplace else.  Reinstall the app.  Run it.  It runs fine,
but without your personal configurations, including encrypted passwords, IPs,
associated applications, etc.  Don't curse!  Just recopy the entire contents
of your old program folder, which you've had hidden on the side somewhere,
into the active program folder.  Whenever it asks you if you want to overwrite
a file, say yes.  Run it again.  All of your personal settings are back, and
functioning fine.  The same system works with Opera.  A few apps, like Accent
Express, hide their user parameters in .inis and related files, but put them
in the Windows folder and subfolders.  Hunt out the files with suspicious
sounding names and transfer them from your old Windows folder or its
subfolders to the new one.  (Accentxp.ini, Accmling.ini).
Second example:  NoteTab, Mailbag Asst, zillions of small utilities.  The
first time you run them, you discover that they run just fine, with all of
your old settings, as if nothing happened.  Category 1.  They never used the
registry anyway, or at least not after you told them to stop it.  Beiley Fund
Manager.  Category 3.  Seems to use the registry only to circumvent certain
default behaviors.
Third example:  The Version Browser from Karen's Power Tools, lots of others.
They seem to start to run, but when you try to do anything useful, they start
to complain that such-and-such a .dll or .vbx or whatever is missing.  Just
find it in your old saved-up Windows folder, or in Windows\System, and put it
in the new Windows or Windows\System.  If it asks your permission to overwrite
an older version, let it.  You may have to do this three or four times before
the app starts to behave normally.

Sorry about the length, but reading this still takes less time than
reconfiguring even one big app by hand.

>> > > 2. Accept the fact that all of your applications will have to be
>> reinstalled (and reconfigured) even if they are presently on
>> another partition.
>> Carroll Grigsby
>
>Is this true?
>
>Demetri Kolokotronis

Thank you.
David Jonathan Justman.

      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
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