What are those "few registry keys"?
I can't answer that, because I don't have your system nor
know all the apps. A few of them would tend to be
HKLM-Software, HKCU-Software, and you mentioned classes so
HKCR.
You might take it the other way 'round though, get the clean
Win2k SP4 installation working and before trying to change
it, first compare it... for example, what's sitting in your
system32/drivers folder, if all the hardware works on the
new installation, take a hard look at what's *extra* on your
old installation.
Although I have used Regedit, I have no idea how to begin doing what
you are proposing.
Export is a menu item, so for example with the
HKLM-Software, you'd highlight that key, export it, and then
merge it on the fresh installation. Again I would wait on
that, first verifying that the new installation works as it
should, and comparing it.
If you give me the instructions I am willing to give it a try.
The key to the process is keeping your existing installation
intact. That allows copying over the installation folder,
and shortcuts, and the "Application Data" folders for each
user and for the "All users" categories (in the \Documents
and Settings\ folder)
This is essentially a volume attack at copying over the
majority of the applicable files and settings. Some apps
may put something in the system folder or elsewhere,
perhaps a license validation key or whatever, so if/when an
app won't work you'd have to either hunt down the file or
registry entry, or enter it the traditional way if it
prompts for that.
I'm not claiming you'll magically have everything working
without a bit of hunting around, but rather a lot of stuff
will work and you can then spend less time on fewer things
you either hunt down, or if you can't, then install again.
I told you that I misunderstood what you were proposing all along. I
thought when you used the term "clean install" that I would have to
install all my applications again. That's what I was arguing against.
Actually by clean install I meant not installing apps at
all, I meant not trying to use this as your replacement
everyday OS installation, yet, rather to verify the hardware
is otherwise working properly with a clean Win2kSP4 install-
because if it can't do that, there's no point in wondering
if what you have can be fixed. Further having the clean
install, it can be compared to what you have, while it might
be harder to move everything, you may install see things
that stand out, which aren't related to the apps you need
but are just clutter left over from years of use. I can't
really imagine what the system folders must look like after
so much time, upgrading, and so many apps, but there's bound
to be tons of stuff that needs cleared out and if nothing
else you could make some temporary folders and just move the
stuff, they try to run the system and see if anything
chokes.
If you give me the instructions (or point me to a website that has
them) for doing the Registry export, I am willing to have a go at it,
because I won't have to actually reinstall anything.
I never claimed you wont have to reinstall "anything", if
you have 100 apps the odds are fair you would have
something or other that needs more than just what I'd
mentioned, but it's possible you wouldn't.
The main thing is, you start doing it and see what's left,
what won't run. There are also tools that can help you see
when an app is looking for a file or a registry entry it
can't find, and then failing to run. Sysinternals.com has a
few, the Filemon and Regmon for example are both freeware.
I assume by that you mean create a new active partition of a new
installation of Win2K. That I can do and I can dedicate a complete
disk drive to it. Should I put SP4 on too?
Yes, the operating system should be 100% done, including
SP4, all modern patches, before even thinking about adding
any apps or registry entries or anything else, then back it
up first, then compare to your present installation.
This is a long roundabout way of doing it though, I'd be
looking at system32/drivers/ files and odd out-of-place
services first, and the items you can UNhide in Device
Manager. That might be useful, comparing the entire
unhidden list in Device Manager between your old
installation and the new one. This too I'd do before trying
to move any applications or registry entries.
I will do that and report back for the next step. I am trusting you
that the Registry exports will be straightforward, and not require me
to seek out the references to 100 different apps many of which have
different names in the Registry for the same app.
I gave examples above of copying the entire subkey. That
will be a little extra clutter in your registry, but if you
wanted to you could always expand these subkeys and manually
delete any of the next level that you recognize as being no
longer on the system. Likewise with the apps, you'll have
to copy them all over and while it would be easy to just say
"they're all in your program files folder", they might not
be, you'd be getting the bulk of them in one shot then
dealing with the few odd things remaining.
The main thing to remember is you're not changing your
existing installation, and by making incremental backups of
the new installation at worst what you'll have is a ready to
use OS installation when you decide to retire that system to
a secondary use (or sell it) and move all your stuff to a
new computer. So unless you plan on throwing it away this
new OS installation is something that had to be done anyway.
I'll accept most of what you say. I've mostly stayed with fat for