Re: [XP Pro] Changing profile location in registry

Tech-Archive recommends: Speed Up your PC by fixing your registry

From: Soapm (Soapm_at_spamlite.net)
Date: 10/17/04 

Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 15:22:14 -0600

Actually, it is neither impossible or hard. Since Win3.1 I have stored my
documents and personal stuff on a different drive from the OS and
applications. Makes good since to me. Even when I change puters I just move
that drive to the new puter or copy it to a new drive when I have upgraded
the drive. Besides, if you look in system properties ==> userprofiles there
is even a button to copy a profile to any directory you want. The problem
with that is it overwrites whatever is there with the new stuff. I learned
that the hard way with NT4.

Anyway, I have the profile moved but my user registry is over 5 megs. It
still has entries going back to applications I havn't used in years. That is
why I want a fresh go at the registry. It won't let me copy the the new
registry over the old registry file because it is either in use or it says I
don't have the access.

I found a registry cleaner that I will give a try. I just want to get rid of
my old, outdated entries before I load any applications on this fresh
install.

Thanks for the advice!

"Rick "Nutcase" Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:e1imsDItEHA.3772@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> What you've made is a mess.
>
> The Documents and Settings folder is a system default and should not be
> tampered with. You are lucky the system has been able to recover at all.
The
> only time another location can be indicated for the user profiles is when
it
> is done during the initial installation using an unattend.txt file - it is
> not user configurable otherwise.
>
> Map your "My Documents" folder to the D:\ drive to store your data.
> Right-click the folder and choose properties, the option to move it is on
> the general tab. You can also export your favorites & cookies to the other
> drive as a backup as well, just click file/import & export from an
Internet
> Explorer window.
>
> When installing software, use custom install and redirect it to D:\. This
> will work for most, though there are still a few that will default to C:\
> irregardless of what you do (including editing the default program
> installation location in the registry). Doing this is kind of pointless as
> far as backing up goes, as if you do a clean installation of the operating
> system, you will need to reinstall the programs anyways. It's only
> worthwhile if your space on C:\ is limited.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
> www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>
> "Soapm" <Soapm@spamlite.net> wrote in message
> news:%23gWutVHtEHA.2804@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> >I store all my stuff on my D:\ drive so that if my system crashes I am
> > likely to keep my important stuff. I do this by searching the registry
> > with
> > my username (Chuck) and change all settings from C:\Docum... to
D:\Chuck.
> > I
> > do the same with all users and default user.
> >
> > Problem: when I reboot and log in it finds my previous registry(s) from
> > all
> > my previous installs (since NT4) and now my registry is huge and
extremely
> > cluttered.
> >
> > How can I move the newly installed registry settings from C:\Docum...
and
> > replace all the ones old ones on my D:\ drive? Which ones would I have
to
> > move?
> >
> > If I can't do that and before I install any applications I would like to
> > run
> > a good registry cleaner that will see what entries are no longer valid
and
> > give me the option before removing them. Anyone know of one?
> >
> >
>
>

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