transfering programs between hard drives

[aeneas3]

hi guys
sorry if this answer is found elsewhere, saw some similar threads but wasnt sure if those answers fit my question. Besides the fact that I am trying to figure out what is wrong with my 4 year old dell here, I am trying to explore other options. I have a new dell 8600 that is running xp like my old 4100. There are a bunch of programs that I would like to transfer over to my new dell. Is there a way to do this without completely reinstalling on the new computer. For example, if I installed ez cd creator 7 and cannot find the cd, can I move that over to the new computer while keeping the registry intact. the transfer wizard won't do this right? I would really like to not permanently add this old drive to my new computer as I eventually want to salvage the old computer and get it back running as an ftp server and for minor easy things. any ideas?
thanks. i appreciate it!

 

[Pciber]

Most programs rely on data inside the registry to run right, which is put there during installation of the program. To copy the program files to another computer wont work for most programs, unless you add the registry entries associated with it to your registry, too - which means digging through it on your old machine and finding all of the entries for the programs you want. You can't just copy the entire registry - its filled with junk that will either make your computer very slow, or make it not boot up at all.

 

[aeneas3]

thanks, that is what I figured as well. Just have to find those old cds