Application Move

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I am trying to relieve my C Drive of some installed applications, does anybody know of an application that will move the application without having to reinstall. My memory tells me it used to be part of Nortons System Works, I have System Works Pro 2004 but cannot find the application. A simple utility is preferred.

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There are a couple of bies out there, purported to do much the same thing, but I’ve not tried them myself:

Coa32 is freeware from ZDNet. With it you can move any tools you’ve installed on Win95/NT to anywhere you want. Still downloadable from here.

MoveIt – 20KB
“Gives you a possibility to move registered applications from one folder to another, without losing their work ability and preventing you from installing them again. It can be very useful when you have a lot of folder on yuor harddrive an you want (need) to put them all in order. For example System application to “System”, Games to “Games” etc. ”

Alan

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It’s not possible to generalize this.

Applications can do all sorts of things in the Registry and in associated directories.

The ONLY sure way is to re-install.

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I’d agree with that – one reason I haven’t tried them myself. However, I was responding to the request for existing software, rather than advising. I had considered moving applications this way at one stage, also using a registry utility to identify and correct errors therein after each move. I decided in the end to go the uninstall/ reinstall route though.

Alan

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You could not count on making the needed registry changes.

Lots of apps scatter stuff all over the place, in many cases, encoding items as non-character values. No way to figure out how to change those as such items would rarely, if ever be documented.

A few years ago, I did the idiotic thing of cloning an OS to another drive.
This required 10’s of thousands of changes in the Registry and to files used for installation/uninstallation/etc.
I was lucky and got by with few mishaps, but I’ll never do that again

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---

A few years ago, I did the idiotic thing of cloning an OS to another drive.

---

Yes, it was exactly that that I was contemplating, and decided such a major operation was in the too hard basket for such a method. As you say, one can’t generalize on this. I guess a knowledge of the application itself (installation, registry use etc.) is the only guide… and only a guide at that.

Alan

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Moving the entire drive just requires changing the drive letters.
In general, that can be handled with massiveedits of the registry using a registry editor and search of files using the built-in Search in windoze explorer, but it ain’t worth the bother if you have the original software to do re-installs anfd know how to recreate the options/setting for the OS and apps.

I managed to get lucky, but do not recommend the deed to anyone.

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Howard,
————————————–
Moving the entire drive just requires changing the drive letters.
In general, that can be handled with massive edits of the registry ,
—————————————Etc.

Change the drive letter by going to Control Panel>Administrative tools>Computer Management>Disk Management is a lot easier than rooting around in the reg.

Or do you mean searching around for references to the old drive letter and editing them.

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Howard,
————————————–
Moving the entire drive just requires changing the drive letters.
In general, that can be handled with massive edits of the registry ,
—————————————Etc.

Change the drive letter by going to Control Panel>Administrative tools>Computer Management>Disk Management is a lot easier than rooting around in the reg.

Or do you mean searching around for references to the old drive letter and editing them.

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It is necessary to change the actual drive letters in thousands of registry entries and in many files.
I was talking about cloning an OS on the same system, i.e., you end up with an OS on, say, C, and on F, each separately bootable.

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Ok that’s true if you are trying to clone an entire drive, however, the originator of the thread is talking about moving SOME of his apps off the C: drive to relieve space on his boot drive. ( at least that’s what I read in his post )

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It’s the same problem, on a smaller scale.
Apps are quite inventive on using registry settings and install/uninstall files, not to mention app specific stuff.

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That’s when you re-install them.

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Do not understand your response.

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When the:
—————————————
Apps are quite inventive on using registry settings and install/uninstall files, not to mention app specific stuff.
————————————–

That’s when you re-install them.

Reply | Quote

When the:
—————————————
Apps are quite inventive on using registry settings and install/uninstall files, not to mention app specific stuff.
————————————–

That’s when you re-install them.

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Do not understand your response.

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That’s when you re-install them.

Reply | Quote

It’s the same problem, on a smaller scale.
Apps are quite inventive on using registry settings and install/uninstall files, not to mention app specific stuff.

Reply | Quote

Ok that’s true if you are trying to clone an entire drive, however, the originator of the thread is talking about moving SOME of his apps off the C: drive to relieve space on his boot drive. ( at least that’s what I read in his post )

Reply | Quote

It is necessary to change the actual drive letters in thousands of registry entries and in many files.
I was talking about cloning an OS on the same system, i.e., you end up with an OS on, say, C, and on F, each separately bootable.

Reply | Quote

Moving the entire drive just requires changing the drive letters.
In general, that can be handled with massiveedits of the registry using a registry editor and search of files using the built-in Search in windoze explorer, but it ain’t worth the bother if you have the original software to do re-installs anfd know how to recreate the options/setting for the OS and apps.

I managed to get lucky, but do not recommend the deed to anyone.

Reply | Quote

---

A few years ago, I did the idiotic thing of cloning an OS to another drive.

---

Yes, it was exactly that that I was contemplating, and decided such a major operation was in the too hard basket for such a method. As you say, one can’t generalize on this. I guess a knowledge of the application itself (installation, registry use etc.) is the only guide… and only a guide at that.

Alan

Reply | Quote

You could not count on making the needed registry changes.

Lots of apps scatter stuff all over the place, in many cases, encoding items as non-character values. No way to figure out how to change those as such items would rarely, if ever be documented.

A few years ago, I did the idiotic thing of cloning an OS to another drive.
This required 10’s of thousands of changes in the Registry and to files used for installation/uninstallation/etc.
I was lucky and got by with few mishaps, but I’ll never do that again

Reply | Quote

I’d agree with that – one reason I haven’t tried them myself. However, I was responding to the request for existing software, rather than advising. I had considered moving applications this way at one stage, also using a registry utility to identify and correct errors therein after each move. I decided in the end to go the uninstall/ reinstall route though.

Alan

Reply | Quote

It’s not possible to generalize this.

Applications can do all sorts of things in the Registry and in associated directories.

The ONLY sure way is to re-install.

Reply | Quote

There are a couple of bies out there, purported to do much the same thing, but I’ve not tried them myself:

Coa32 is freeware from ZDNet. With it you can move any tools you’ve installed on Win95/NT to anywhere you want. Still downloadable from here.

MoveIt – 20KB
“Gives you a possibility to move registered applications from one folder to another, without losing their work ability and preventing you from installing them again. It can be very useful when you have a lot of folder on yuor harddrive an you want (need) to put them all in order. For example System application to “System”, Games to “Games” etc. ”

Alan

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