I remember well the first time I tried to transfer a program from one computer to another. It was a long time ago, and it was quite funny. I tried to transfer the program shortcut from the desktop using a USB flash drive. Of course, it didn’t work. Then, after a while, I tried again with a new idea that seemed brilliant at first. Yes! I transferred the entire folder of the program – which I found in Program Files on drive C. At that moment, I was sure my idea would work this time, but unfortunately, the program didn’t work as expected. So, is there a solution to achieve this, and what files should be transferred from one device to another so that I can transfer installed programs to another computer? Well, this is what we will discover from this article.
Article written by blogger Sari Zeinon
Read also: How to transfer installed programs on your computer to another location without reinstalling them
To easily explain this method, we will start by assuming that PC-1 is the device from which we will transfer the program and the device PC-2 is the one to which we will transfer the program. We will also rely on the Total Uninstall Pro program, which may not seem like it is designed for this task, but it provides a very strong backup tool that we will use to execute our task. So, download Total Uninstall Pro and install it on both devices PC-1 and PC-2. And now, let’s proceed directly to the work steps.
Step 1: We will back up all the files and Registry of the program we want to transfer from PC-1 by following these steps:
Go to Total Uninstall Pro and wait a little while a complete list of programs installed on your computer is created. Then click on the name of the program you want to transfer, then click on the File tab, then Analyze, then Advanced to start analyzing the program. Wait until the process is complete and all the program information appears on the screen.
Then, click on File, then Create a backup for the program and wait for the process to finish, then click Finish.
After completion, click on File again, and this time click Export, then Registry changes.
In the window that appears, leave all the options as they are and click OK, then save the resulting file in the following path:
C:\ProgramData\Martau\Total Uninstall 6\Backup
Step 2: Now we will change the SID values in the extracted Registry file so that the program will work when transferred to PC-2. To do this, go to PC-2, then enter Command Prompt by pressing (Win + R), then type CMD and press OK.
Inside the Command Prompt window, type the following command and press Enter:
wmic useraccount get name,sid
This will give you a list of all the SIDs for each user on this device. (We will use the number corresponding to the username that will run the program on PC-2 later, so you need to keep it)
“S-1-5-21-3119535175-##########-##########-1000”
In PC-1, go to the path: “C:\ProgramData\Martau\Total Uninstall 6\Backup” where you saved the Registry file earlier, and you will find the required file in (.reg) format. Right-click on this file, then click Edit to open the file in Notepad.
Now within this file, you can find the SID that needs to be changed, and it will be in the following format:
S-#-#-##-##########-#########-##########-####
Copy this number, then go to Edit, then Replace (or you can press Ctrl + H) and paste the SID in the Find what box, then fill in the Replace with box with the SID corresponding to the username that will run the program on PC-2 (the number we extracted earlier), and click Replace All, then close the file with saving.
Step 3: Now we will transfer the files we extracted from PC-1 to PC-2 and restore the program there. From the path “C:\ProgramData\Martau\Total Uninstall 6\Backup” on PC-1, you will find two files (.zip) and (.reg) with the program’s name. Move these two files to PC-2 and place them in the same path (you can use a USB flash drive or any other means to transfer the files). Now, open Total Uninstall program on the second computer and from the File menu, click on File, then Restore a program from backup.
In the window that appears, you will see the name of the program you just transferred. Select it and click Restore, and after the process is complete, the program will be transferred to your device and will work properly.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that some programs may not work when transferred from one operating system to another, for example when transferring from Windows 7 to Windows 10 or vice versa (in my experience, I transferred Format Factory program from Windows 10 to Windows 7 and it worked perfectly, but it is necessary to mention that) or for example when transferring the program between two systems with different bit architectures 64bit and 32bit, also programs that require compatibility with some hardware components may not work when transferred to another device.
