I'm planning to do a fresh install of Windows 11 since I've been facing some issues with my current setup. I have a 1TB external hard drive that I connect via USB, and it has some important files on it. My plan is to copy over the Users, Program Files, Program Files (x86), and ProgramData folders to the external drive. After the fresh installation, I want to know if I can just copy those folders back to my PC, or is the process different? Also, do I need to disable my current Windows installation and reuse my license key for the fresh install?
2 Answers
It's a good idea to save your installers. While you can’t just copy over the game files, keeping those installation files handy will save you some time. Just remember that once you reinstall Windows, the actual game data will need to be downloaded again. About your license key, you typically can just reuse it after the fresh install, but it’s best to check Microsoft’s guidelines just to be safe.
Unfortunately, just copying the program files won't work for reinstalling programs or games since they rely on registry keys that won't be there unless you go through the installation process. If you have installation files, you can save those on your external drive and run them again after reinstalling Windows. For game platforms like Steam or Epic, you can store their installers on the drive, but you'll need to redownload the actual games afterwards.
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