Installing programs without installing them

Iriah

I've got a whole bunch of programs on a backup hard drive without the installation... stuff. When I copy them over to my PC it doesn't seem to notice they're there. Is there some way I can get it to recognize them? Fiddle with the registry? I am delightfully thick at these parts of the PC.

Iceman.USAF

You'd have to individually edit the registry for each product, I believe. More than that, I don't know.

AtomBomb

You can't just copy the data files over to a drive to install a program. Not with Windows anyway. The installation process changes/adds things to the registry and sets up other things within the program itself. I suppose you could get some things to work if you knew all the changes that the install made, but it would be a pain in the ass. Usually, in a backup situation, you'll save all of your data (saved games, settings, documents, whatever), reinstall the programs and then reinsert your backups.

You can avoid this by backing up the entire drive and copying it onto a new drive, as this carries over all the registry info and whatnot. That doesn't sound like what you did though.

If all that installs had to do was copy the info from the CD's to your hard drive they would go way faster than they do.

Eat_Fire

Programs are designed that way on purpose to make them harder to copy. When you install a program (most of them) add entries in your registry to allow them to run. The exclusions to this are usually only dos programs and very small utility applications.

If you need data files from these programs to start over, post the program names and we can help you rebuild your backup/files/templates . But you need to reinstall everything from its disc or manufacturer's website.

If you have pirated stuff we can't help you.

Iriah

Ok, I thought that would be the case. It's just going to be a bitch to find all the CDs and install all the programs again. And no, I don't have anything pirated.