Transfer program options?

[photoken]

Later this year Windows 10 will be released, and I'm wondering if there's a straightforward way to transfer all the program's Options to the new installation of Windows.

I expect to reformat my drive so Windows 10 will be installed on an empty, clean drive. It would be great if I could save the current PL Options onto a USB stick and then copy them onto the new installations of Windows 10 and PL.

Is that possible?

[Hoogo]

If you already use the USB stick mode of PL, then it will be easy.

[photoken]

If you already use the USB stick mode of PL, then it will be easy.

No I don't. If I install PL on the USB stick, will that installation "pick up" and automatically transfer the Options used by the main program? If so, how would I transfer the Options from the USB stick to the new installation of PL on the system drive?

[ellhel]

Hi Ken,

you don´t need an USB-Stick. Install PL in a user-defined directory.
Then create a new directory. Rename the directory to the following name: "Usersettings".
After reinstallation copy the folder back with your settings.

Usesettings.jpg

Regards
Helmut

[Hoogo]

If you already use the USB stick mode of PL, then it will be easy.

No I don't. If I install PL on the USB stick, will that installation "pick up" and automatically transfer the Options used by the main program? If so, how would I transfer the Options from the USB stick to the new installation of PL on the system drive?

No, there's no automatic transfer. But now, as you mention it, I wonder if PL could do that?
The USB Stick mode is just a folder "usersettings" in PL's program folder. When it is found, all settings are fetched and stored there instead of the registry.

What about this feature: If the folder "usersettings" is empty, PL could still read the registry, but write to that folder? I assume most people don't start with USB stick mode, and when they enable it later, their settings are lost.

[photoken]

No, there's no automatic transfer.

Yes, I found out that running off a USB stick, or creating a "PhotoLineSettings" directory in my exixting PL installation merely starts with the default Options. Not what I want -- if I have to manually specify every single setting in every single tab of every single window in the Options dialog, I might as well do that after the clean installation of Windows 10....

But now, as you mention it, I wonder if PL could do that?

I'd like to see a button in the lower left corner of the Options dialog to "Export Settings to File", and another button to "Import Settings from File". Or, those buttons could be in a new section of the "Extended" tab....

Later tonight, I'll take a look at the Registry. Hopefully, I'll be able to export the relevant keys as a REG file that I can then import after the conversion.

[photoken]

Later tonight, I'll take a look at the Registry. Hopefully, I'll be able to export the relevant keys as a REG file that I can then import after the conversion.

Well, it wasn't so bad. The "PhotoLine" registry entry has a lot of sub-entries that look like they encompass everything that I have set in the program's Options (and more). Using RegEdit, it was quick and easy to export that entire "PhotoLine" entry to a REG file that's only 158Kb in size. I'll see how it goes later this year with importing that REG file into the new installation....

[Martin Huber]

Later tonight, I'll take a look at the Registry. Hopefully, I'll be able to export the relevant keys as a REG file that I can then import after the conversion.

Well, it wasn't so bad. The "PhotoLine" registry entry has a lot of sub-entries that look like they encompass everything that I have set in the program's Options (and more). Using RegEdit, it was quick and easy to export that entire "PhotoLine" entry to a REG file that's only 158Kb in size. I'll see how it goes later this year with importing that REG file into the new installation....

You still have to copy the PhotoLine files in the AppData directory. The location of this folder is OS dependent, but I've read, that entering "%appdata%" in the explorer directly jumps to that folder.

Martin

[photoken]

You still have to copy the PhotoLine files in the AppData directory. The location of this folder is OS dependent, but I've read, that entering "%appdata%" in the explorer directly jumps to that folder.

Thanks for that info. I found the directory at
.\<username>\AppData\Roaming\PhotoLine
and have saved it along with the REG file.