Transferring a program from one computer's Start menu to another's

Loren Booda

I seek to transfer a program from the Start menu of my old computer to the Start menu of my new computer.

Of all the files which transferred from my old computer to my new one, this one was apparently left out. My old computer has only floppy disk, and the new, only CD. Is there a hardwire, or dragging, method that I am overlooking?

Thanks for your solution to this, probably simple, problem.

schip666!

How did you transfer everything else?

If you have an ethernet (or, well, any) connection between the machines -- or are able to upload to a website and download again -- you should be able to copy the necessary files using the usual suspects: either by mounting the external machine in the file manager (My Computer->Network Places if we are talking Windows), or using FTP or other web services.

The problem is figuring out WHAT files to copy. The start menu item's Properties (Windows again) should show you the path to the executable file. Mostly you will want everything in the directory that contains that file. Unfortunately many software packages hide bits and pieces all over the file system, in shared directories, Windows/System32, and in the Registry or other environments. The only way I know to figure it out is to start by copying the candidate directory, see if the program runs correctly on the target machine, and then try to find or intuit what's missing.

If you can't get it to run you'll probably have to re-install the program from the original media.