On 29-4-2012 19:37, Darren New wrote:
> Or, alternately, save it as text, and in the event of a disaster where
> you have not backed up your machine properly in the first place, you'll
> likely be able to spend a bunch of time to find the keys you need to
> restore, which I believe was the original complaint.

It is an idea, but I am not sure if that would work in practice. We are 
talking about a machine of an average user, or luser as they were once 
known. In general he gets the machine in a non-working condition with 
hardly a backup. As long as the drive is still spinning he will try to 
salvage whatever he can. In the majority of cases they get a working 
machine back with (almost) all data (and a backup DVD or similar). He 
has a room full of spare parts from all sorts of sources, including the 
machines he was not able to repair.

>> You would want that if your windows system is corrupted either by a bad
>> block or a virus but you still want to continue using the same machine
>> with
>> your familiar setup. If only to figure out what programs should be
>> installed
>> on a new machine, because your current system is provably vulnerable.
>
> Well, if you have a bad block, you can correct that block (chkdsk /f /r)
> and then put the one bad file back. If you want to know what files are
> installed, it's pretty easy to figure that out looking at the start menu
> and the uninstall list. (That's how I do it when I want to move to a new
> machine.) Maybe I just work differently than most people, tho.

Not all programs are there in my case. I have some programs that simply 
come as an executable. (written by a colleague for instance) OTOH they 
don't use the registry, which makes life a bit easier.

-- 
tip: do not run in an unknown place when it is too dark to see the 
floor, unless you prefer to not use uppercase.

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