Not that I am building a new machine or anything, but the one thing that always bums me out is installing the software back on the new machine. So as I am driving into work today I hear this ad from laplink that peeked my interest. Would this PC mover software by Laplink transfer all Flightsim stuff including add-ons?? Just wondering if anyone has used it or any thoughts of it in the future that it would make sense to use this type of program. To me a clean install would be the best, but geez this is sure simple.http://laplink.com/products/pcmover/overview.asp

There was a thread a while back which asked this same question. I responded at length in that one, but the quick answer is don't use such software for flight simulator related work.Many entertainment add-ons use hidden or encrypted registry keys as part of their copy protection. Software such as this does not work well with products which contain such copy protection--which is often keyed to look at a hardware checksum as well. You also risk moving machine specific registry entries, as some add-ons configure themselves to be optimized on the system they run on.I suggest (and use in practice on my WAN and at home) a clean install so the software is installed as designed, and so that it configures itself in the optimal way for the target machine.-John

This one works flawlessly, and I have used it to move FS, and many other applications, from one drive to another:Application Mover Moves installed programs from one path to another on your hard disk. Application Mover takes files found in the path you specify and moves them to a new path that you specify. The program then changes windows registry references to the new path and adjusts windows shortcuts to the new path reference. 'Also does search-replace on *.ini and Install.log files found in the program path to the new path reference. http://www.funduc.com/

I agree that a clean install is the best way of doing it, I just find it very interesting that there are programs that are able to move entire systems to other systems.Anyways, thanks for the info and time to reply. John I will look for your post.

A clean install is NOT necessary if you use that app I referred to!

"A clean install is NOT necessary if you use that app I referred to!"It sounds like a good app when moving from one drive to another on the same machine, but how does it handle different machines, or h/w based copy protection? What add-ons has it worked well with? Even I could find use for such software when I finish building my new XP box, but my experience with such programs is they don't always move apps properly where copy protection is used that validates against the h/w, since such apps don't "see" hidden reg keys.-John

>It sounds like a good app when moving from one drive to>another on the same machine, but how does it handle different>machines, or h/w based copy protection? What add-ons has it>worked well with? As I quoted, "Moves installed programs from one path to another on your hard disk" or, to another hard drive on the same machine. I haven't tried it with two seperate machines, but I don't see why it wouldn't work if the two are connected. Obviously, that ridiculous hardware based copy protection may be another matter, but it seems to copy registry keys just fine. Fortunately, I have no software with such protection. Why not give it a try on a test machine and see how it does if you have such things. I've copied FS from one drive to another with no problems. When installing any other add-ons after the move, it worked fine, knowing the new location of FS.

I recently imaged (not copied) my W98SE system to another HD (It is important you elect to keep the same disk ID and copy empty sectors so the geometry stays) with Driveworks. Took that HD and placed it in my new machine and changed mobo related drivers as needed. I removed items that the WXP install test said would not work or would need reinstall. Ran the XP Pro SP1 upgrade and everything in FS including add-ons was available after reinstalling the sound card drivers. I had to reinstall/upgrade the NVidia drivers and reinstall DirectX 9.0c after the sound card reinstalled 8.1.I had to recalibrate in Gaming Options the USB control devices and then reassign them in FS assignments for joystick.Those items that migrated successfully were FS9.1 and the following license keyed add-ons without special attention:Radar Contact 3.1,AS 2004.5Reality XP gauges version 2's of JL, Apollo 50 FLA, WX500v1FS Panel StudioFSUIPmaybe others I can't recall right now.Removed FS stuff from the old machine to create space after all was tested.Note that I did not do the XP upgrade until after the move because its activation is tied to the existing hardware.