Is "installing" software essential?

[StevenNevets]

I'm getting an external hdd soon and rather than putting isos and setup.exe's on it what if I just copy and paste the program files?

Will that still work? Any draw-backs?

 

[Billb2]

Depends on which programs. Some make registry changes, copy stuff to other folders, etc. during install.
It would take longer to figure out what to copy and what to install than it would to just reinstall everything.

 

[nova2]

it can be done, but some people wont have much success as they will certainly run into simple errors and they will stop there.

just run with it, and if you cant figure something out, dont do it, or maybe ask here for help.