How to transfer individual programs from one hard drive to another?

i8myhippo

Honorable
May 20, 2012
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10,510
1. Right-click Copy
2. Paste
3. Profit

Kidding, that's not how installation works. When you install a program, it makes folders with (seemingly) nonsensical files inside them that are crucial to the function of the program. These folders are scattered, and the .exe that we think of as "the program" contains directions to find and execute these files.

Therefore, one COULD copy and paste each individual folder, being sure that the directories match, but 99% of the time, this won't work.

If you downloaded these programs, and you still (magically) have the installer in your downloads folder, you CAN copy and paste that over, then run it.

Else if these programs are downloaded from the publisher, use whatever sort of authentication you need to (CD-Key, Serial Number etc.) and download it onto the new computer.

Else you'll need to find some other way to install these programs onto your Notebook.

This, of course, assumes you own all of these programs.

Ah, and if you need to find the installer, you may be able to open the file location from within Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs. Worth a shot.

Hope this helps!