Upgrading from Win2K to WinXP
 

For some compatibility issues, I'll be needing to "buy" a copy of Windows XP soon. I know I can copy my user from this OS to the next so it all "looks" the same, but I'm looking to see if there is a way to copy registry entries so that I don't have to reinstall my applications or manually edit registry keys.

I keep my applications on a seperate partition of the drive so when I reformat Windows, I still have my games, apps, etc. installed.

Is this possible or should I just get all those installers warmed up for a night of restarting the PC?

Upgrading, in the sense of overwriting one OS with another, is really bad practice. While it seems like it has it's benefits, doing so creates many more problems. I'm sure that most people you talk to, including myself, would recommend doing a clean install.

Backup all your important files, format your drives with Windows information and programs on them, and start fresh.

Yeah, start fresh. It's not really worth upgrading Windows considering you'd run into problems in the long run.

Definately worth doing if you're going to do a fresh install. And a fresh install is probably the best way to go about this. So you'd better clear a few days for all the re-installing you'll be doing.

I would agree that it would be best to do a fresh install, but if you absolutely wanted to migrate program settings to the XP install it shouldn't be a problem in most cases. Things like MS Office are easy enough to do (with the "Save My Settings" wizard in the MS Office Tools program group) but others (which utilize OS specific drivers) you should avoid backing up like diagnostic and antivirus programs. You would need to copy over all software related registry keys from HKLM and HKCU, but you may have issues with program functionality once on your new install (since some programs may be installed differently under XP). But if you are fairly certain they are not critical system apps then I would recommend at least doing that, especially if you have your apps on a separate partition, otherwise you will have to reconfigure them all (they will write their default settings to the registry as if it were a clean install.) The only exception would be apps that store their settings in .INI or .cfg files.

Oh course, before touching the registry make a backup of your system state as you can easily screw things up if you don't know what you are doing.

I know what I'm doing...I've done plenty of these installations, but its not whether or not I should...

I'm wanting to know if there is a way to move my "shortcuts" and such from my "old" registry into XP?

If all games I pop in try to install, it'll be annoying (even though I launch through Xfire...which I'd still have to manually add all the games).

I'm not talking about Office settings, or the last font I used in Photoshop. I need to know if application 'shortcuts' can be saved (which I assume registry keys) and imported to XP as if I had already installed them in that OS.

The drive name would be the same, so the path for each app. would be the same.

Is it as simple and exporting the registry range and importing it once in XP?

Well, in that case you would simply have to copy the following folders to a temp drive then move them back once you have logged into your account:

"C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Start Menu\Programs"
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs"

For the start menu folder associated with your username, make sure to modify the permissions to grand read/write access to your account on the XP system, since your new user account will receive a new SID regardless of wheatear you name it the same thing (unless you are using a domain account.) This way you can prevent all of these shortcuts from being unreadable .

I was actually going to copy the whole username folder, but I'll recheck the permissions. Overlooked that, thanks. For autorun-related issues, can I just export/import the registry?

I wouldn't really copy over the whole profile folder, as this can bring forth any latent problems with your existing settings as well as confilct with XP specific settings. From my experience only copy the following folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Desktop\
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Cookies\
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\ (exclude Application Data\Microsoft\
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Favorites
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\NetHood\ (If you have any mapped network/internet folders
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\SendTo\ (Will preserve any app specific actions in the Send To menu. Also copy the \Documents and Settings\All Users\SendTo in case apps have placed them there.)
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\ (except the "Microsoft" folder).

And by "auto-run" do you mean the applications that run automatically when Windows boots, or the settings that controls whether to auto-run programs from a newly inserted CD?

Both, actually. I can work on the startup stuff. I was going to move what I want off, with a .txt telling me where it goes (and a few other notes to myself), then move it back once I format the partition.

Well, then you can use the attached registry key from the 2k installation to automatically disable auto-run when you first boot into XP. Simply double click on it to integrate the setting into the registry.