Back in the old day of DOS

[Mushin]

Back in the old days of Dos it was much easier backup and restore programs and data. You simply needed to copy the infromation from one location to another. With Windows it has become increasingly more difficult to backup or migrate information and programs largely in part due to the system registry.

I have been experiamenting with drive imageing as way to repair computers without loosing data and settings. Essentially a scripted full image backup of the computer. Then scripted reinstall of the OS. Then droping back down the programs and files that are needed (Minus registry entries.)

So assuming you have an idea of what registry settings a program makes couldnt you essentially do the above and then export the registry entries from into the new install and have performed a full migration?

Ignoring things like infections and corrupted registry entries.. is the broad theory valid?

 

[14049752]

Also ignoring drm methods such as activation.


The broad theory, as you put it, is valid. In practice, it's way more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Mushin]

Also ignoring drm methods such as activation.


The broad theory, as you put it, is valid. In practice, it's way more trouble than it's worth.

I agree with the trouble part.... trust me there.. but it is a fun pet project that teaches a lot.

Where I am getting hung up is determining where/what is modified in the system registry when a program installs.
Will the install log for programs tell us what modifications were made and where files were placed on the computer?

If so... you could use install log to clone or move the reg entries and program files.?.?

 

[14049752]

I doubt that enough programs would log the changes they make to be a source for that information. Aside from that, there's also no way to know how to parse the individual logs automatically to get the right information.

 

[Mushin]

Guess a good old berfore and after comparison of the registry on a clean system is about as good as I can get.

 

[Larry Sabo]

You could build a library/knowledgebase of what files and reg entries are introduced/changed during installation of popular programs and develop a script to extract these from the image+reg backup for such programs, perhaps. I'm thinking of Total Uninstall or similar programs. I doubt it's worth the effort; don't know how you would recoup the investment in time, especially as you need to prepare the image of the target system in advance of having to restore it.

 

[Mushin]

You could build a library/knowledgebase of what files and reg entries are introduced/changed during installation of popular programs and develop a script to extract these from the image+reg backup for such programs, perhaps. I'm thinking of Total Uninstall or similar programs. I doubt it's worth the effort; don't know how you would recoup the investment in time, especially as you need to prepare the image of the target system in advance of having to restore it.

your point about recouping the investment is true but... and then you have to worry about maintaining the whole thing when new versions of the programs come out. Plus you would have to have the program to begin with and so on... so on this I agree it is not a production type of thing. A


Although... Acronis True Image has a feature called Try and Decide that when activated keeps track of all changes to the system so you can either apply them or revert back. I use this quite a bit when I want to test software but don't want to be bothered with left overs after removal. It also has the added benefit of circumventing fully functional trialware that expires after a certain day (not that it is to be used this way ... it is just a byproduct that I stumbled upon..)

So with this a program could be installed to capture the changes to the system and then the system could be quickly revereted back.

OK.. anyone know of a good tool for comparing the before and after registry copies and extracting the changes into a reg file?

I found this but... is there anything better? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171780

 

[vdub12]

It would be nice if programs could rebuild there registry entry's.

Or even better if reg backups could be made for specific programs.

I assume you can use a VM to install a program and compare the reg before and after the install to get the location of the reg entries. Then back them up from the original registry and restore them to the new registry.

Make sure to snap shoot the VM so you can do this for multiple programs.

 

[B Trevathan]

anyone know of a good tool for comparing the before and after registry copies and extracting the changes into a reg file?

Would something like "Active Registry Monitor (ARM)" help you, its an old program but I think it should still work in any windows OS or at least on an XP system.

Active Registry Monitor (ARM) is an utility designed for analysing the changes made to Windows Registry - by making the "snapshots" of it and keeping them in the browsable database. You can compare any two snapshots and get the list of keys/data which are new, deleted or just changed. ARM can do comparing not only in the entire Regisrty, but also in any key of the Registry. It is also possible to exclude any keys of the Registry from compare results. Moreover, you can create undo/redo files (for example, to rollback the changes). To view the current state of a key, or to modify it, you can use Jump to Regedit function. Contents of any key can be exported to *.reg file.

Very useful for detecting trojan viruses and elimination some problems caused by software and hardware install/uninstall.

Unlike Registry monitoring software (such as RegMon and Win-Expose Registry), and most uninstallers (CleenSweep, Uninstall, etc.), ARM compares full copies of the Registry made at different times, while the software mantioned above just monitors all accesses to the Registry in real time. So, our method allows to track all the changes, and doesn't affect the system performance.

 

[wimwauters]

Back in the old days of Dos it was much easier backup and restore programs and data. You simply needed to copy the infromation from one location to another. With Windows it has become increasingly more difficult to backup or migrate information and programs largely in part due to the system registry.

Indeed. Try some opensource software, hint: start with copying your Firefox profile around, or your Thunderbird profile. It makes Windows look like it's too much trouble for what it's 'worth'

 

[basic]

My project looked at Microsoft Business Desktop Deployment to set up a similar, automated deployment. You might want to take a look at it. Some features include:

• Workstation imaging
• Software and hardware inventory
• Application compatibility evaluation and remediation
• Application packaging and scripting
• Network inventory and analysis
• Workstation deployment, including data migration
• Project management throughout the project’s life cycle

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/enterprise/default.mspx

Edit: This as well, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd407791.aspx

 

[basic]

There was another free tool, by Microsoft, that I was looking at getting into the hands of our integrators. It allows you to do software audits easily. You take a baseline audit, then any future changes to the image can be tracked, and all patches, security changes, registry changes, etc. would be listed. I'll see if I can track down that program.

 

[dbdawn]

I have used MDT 2010. It is very powerful with lots of configuration options, I have just scratched the surface of what it can do. I have used it mostly with Windows 7 though not with XP.