Back up Windows and program settings with CloneApp

CloneApp is a tiny, free and portable tool which can back up and restore the settings of many popular Windows programs.

Supported software includes 7-Zip, Adobe Reader, Classic Shell, Gimp, Google Chrome, Google Earth, IrfanView, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office 2010/ 2013, Firefox, Opera, VLC Media Player, and it can preserve plenty of Windows settings, too: Favorites, Contacts, Network folder settings, Start Menu and more.

It’s all very easy to use. There’s a list of applications on the left, each with checkboxes. You’re able to select any you’d like to preserve (or click "Select Installed" to run a full backup), then click "Start CloneApp" and watch as the files, folders and Registry keys are backed up.

Restoring your settings is equally obvious (select the target applications and click Restore).

This worked very well for us, and if you’re looking to migrate only your settings from one PC to another then it could save you a lot of time.

CloneApp is surprisingly configurable, too. The copying rules aren’t hard-coded anywhere, they’re freely accessible in plain text "plugins". This is the core of the Firefox plugin, for instance.

[Info]
Title=Mozilla Firefox
Description=Backup complete Mozilla Firefox Profile in AppData directory.
BackupFile=0
BackupFolder=1
BackupRegKey=0
BackupCommand=0

[Files]
File1=BackupFolder|%AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

This will back up the profile folder as specified, and it can be customized with more folders, Registry keys, even optionally run custom commands as required.

It’s a simple idea, but CloneApp is well-designed and very configurable. Give it a try.