On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:30:23 +1000, Erik Vastmasd
<erik.vastm@sd.invalid> wrote:

> On Sat, 5 Jul 2008 06:53:13 -0400,when reading
> "microsoft.public.windowsxp.customize", I'm certain I caught a glimpse
> of "Stan Brown <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm>" saying:
>
> >Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:08:45 +1000 from Erik Vastmasd
> ><erik.vastm@sd.invalid>:
> >> I always install my
> >> browsers, programmes and especially email programme, news reader etc. on
> >> D: drive. So when I need to re-install WinXP I don't lose any of my
> >> programme settings which includes my usernames and passwords.
> >
> >You don't lose *all* of them, maybe, but you probably lose some and
> >most likely you lose most.
> >
> >Few Windows programs these days write configuration information to
> >the program directory. most write either to the Registry or to
> >subfolders of C:\Documents and Settings\{your login}. You can move
> >Documents and Settings to another drive, but there's nothing you can
> >do about the registry except back it up.
>
> Just as an example on D: I have Opera as my browser, Eudora for email
> and Agent for news groups.
>
> When I re-install WinXP on C: all my passwords and settings for those
> three programmes remain intact


Yes, there are some programs like that, and others that are the
opposite, as Stan said. The point is that you can not rely on all, or
even most, programs to behave that way, so installing programs on a
separate drive does not generally provide the benefit you ascribe to
it.


> and they will generally run without
> requiring re-installation.


And that behavior is very rare. Yes, again, there are some such
programs, but the great majority of those that are not very small have
registry entries and other entries within \windows. There are a few
exceptions, but in general, if Windows is reinstalled, almost everyone
can expect that they will have to reinstall all (or almost all) their
programs too.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
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