New installation on a new Win10Pro computer

[tomczak]

Could I be reminded what files do I need to copy from the old computer (Win10Personal) to the new one so that the PWP settings are the same on both?

I was wondering if Create Portable Installation wouldn't be the way to go (as opposed to new installation and copying the setup files where they need to go). Another idea - maybe something akin to 'Clone Settings' could be implemented where all the settings are collected and then inserted in the new installation? Or even better, but that I suspect could be difficult to implement, have a Backup/Restore function that would do the same in the cloud (but where?).

[jsachs]

Most of the settings are in Documents\Picture Window Pro

Preferences and a few other settings that are computer-specific are stored in C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Picture Window Pro

New Windows 11 installations may be configured to place Desktop, Documents, Music and Pictures on OneDrive, and it can be a little tricky to get them back to your local drive. Let me know if you encounter this problem and I can suggest some settings to change.

[tomczak]

Yes, somehow I configured the Windows 10 Pro so that Documents are on the One Drive (Preferences are stored locally). Does it mean that Documents etc. are in the cloud and there is no copy stored locally (i.e. do I have to be online to access it?). Would Portable Installation solve this problem? But then I would have to do the updates manually?

[jsachs]

I wasn't anything you did -- Microsoft pre-configures new computers to use OneDrive, similar to the way they try to get people to use Edge. I ran into this recently when one of my computers died and I had to replace it. I was able to get the folders off of OneDrive, but I don't remember exactly all the settings I had to change. Then someone else emailed me recently with the same problem which he was also eventually able to resolve. I have tried to reconstruct what I did and what he did as follows:

Relocate Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music from OneDrive

Change default location of file saves

Open Windows Settings
Select System
In the left panel, select Storage
Under More storage settings, select Change where new content is saved
Choose the default location of various files, including new apps, new documents, new music, and others
Restart your computer

Stop syncing a library

Select the OneDrive icon in the Windows notification area at the bottom of your screen, and then select the Settings icon. ...
Select Settings
Select Account and then select Choose folder.​​​​​​
Select the folder(s) you want to stop syncing, and then select OK
Restart your computer

Relocate a library

Right click folder and select Properties
Select Location tab
Select new location and click OK
Restart your computer

Note: if you attempt to relocate a library without first doing the other steps (which works if the libraries are not on OneDrive) you will get a cryptic error message.

Also, this from the web:

To revert the shell folder locations to default, open OneDrive and do the following:

Important: Before proceeding, copy the files in those special folders to another folder or external drive. Please don’t copy them anywhere under Desktop/Documents/Pictures. This is because disabling OneDrive backup for a folder erases the local copies of the files. Copying them to a different location beforehand will ensure you don’t need to download them again from the OneDrive cloud.

1) Right-click the OneDrive icon in the Notification area and click Settings.

2) Select the "Sync and Backup" tab, and click Manage Backup

3) In the Manage folder backup dialog, deselect "Desktop". Optionally, deselect other shell folders (e.g., Videos, Music, Documents, or Pictures) if you want.

4) Click "Save changes".

[tomczak]

Thank you! I more or less followed the recipe and I think I now have the special folders Documents, Desktop, and Pictures on the local HD and unattached to OneDrive. I somehow lost some files when I was moving files back to PC from the OneDrive - folders moved, but some other files didn't, but that's not a big deal. I reinstalled the PWP and the files seem to reside now in Documents/Picture Window Pro locally. I used to know more or less what the computers were doing, but not anymore, it seems... :-)