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Backup and Restore, An approach to export the registry key that contains settings
 
#1
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I'm always concerned on backups and restores and noticed that a lot of the settings are maintained in the registry in a single key. To eliminate the need to reenter all those settings on a restore, I created a simple batch file to do that, but it required using the Windows command prompt and seemed messy. So I created a simple utility that does one thing: create an export copy of the registry setting. I tested it by completely removing TB! and reinstalling - and then importing my backup of the key. It worked. A friend asked for a copy so I documented it and then felt others may have a similar interest. The utility is available at http://davidkirk.org/thebat/  Maybe I reinvented what others have done, but it was educational for me, regardless. If you try it and have questions, my email and other info is in documentation in the zip file. I 'think' this should work on any Win 7 or newer 64-bit system.  
 
 
 
#2
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Thank you!

When you do backup/restore using The Bat! internal means, you don't need to also preserve registry settings, because The Bat! does all this. But if you just copy files from your AppData, you should also save registry settings.
 
 
 
#3
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I appreciate your response, as backup and restore are important to me. I had anticipated the backup done by Tools>Backup to be complete, as you stated, but that is not what I experienced. To test my approach, I did a backup with Tools>Backup, uninstalled TB!, checked that no registry entries or files remained anywhere and then reinstalled, pointing to my Mail folder. I started TB! and used Tools>Restore, expecting everything to be as before. But it wasn't. There were still settings I had made that weren't there. I didn't document all of them, but a quick check showed missing settings. When I double-clicked my registry backup to restore it everything was back to normal. I repeated the test, ignoring the restore file from Tools>Backup and just used my registry backup file and that fully restored TB! to my settings. For a disaster restore, that seems to fully cover the issue, although I respect that Tools>Backup serves another purpose. .

You mentioned Appdata files, but I don't see any. My backup was just the Mail folder and my registry backup file. Thanks for your comment and I will appreciate any insight you might share on the steps to do a restore after a crash or moving to a new PC, as those are the situations I am working to address.
 
 
 
#4
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david kirk,

Thank you for your effort to assist the rest of us in being able to fully backup/restore The Bat installation.  I have downloaded and executed your executable program, and it worked perfectly.  Thanks for your help!
 
 
 
#5
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Thank you, David, for using your gifts and abilities to benefit us all.
 
 
 
#6
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Well, your posts really made my day for me. Thank you for your kind words. I'm very pleased that others can benefit from this.
david
 
 
 
#7
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The utility is asking for a password to unzip.  May I have said password?

Thanks much.
 
 
 
#8
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Hello.
The password is on the website. That's to prevent crawlers from prying.  Good luck,
david
 
 
 
#9
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Thankyou David for this invaluable tool.

It may save many headaches in the future - something you don`t realise you need....until you do !
 
 
 
#10
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Yes, thank you David. In the past I've opened using regedit and manually exported. Your app is so much easier.

For those who haven't exported registry settings I highly recommend it. I've had to reinstall The Bat on new computers and using the exported registry settings makes it so much easier and faster to get back up and running.
 
 
 
#11
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Thank you, David! This saved me a lot of time.
 
 
 
#12
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I am upgrading my PC to a one with RAID data striping.   This means the drive designations from my old PC with a "Mail" partition will not work with the
new RAID disc.  Will the registry transfer tool you made go looking for the old partition ???   Any suggestions how to do this ??
 
 
 
#13
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No, the utility just extracts the registry value and stores on your PC. However, there are restore instructions with the utility that explain how to change the drive settings within the registry if needed when doing initial setup. I encourage you to read the documentation prior to proceeding. Good luck.

david
 
 
 
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