4 ms·

Is %UserProfile% an environment variable? Will there be multiple settings of it? Hopefully if the user's data is all in one subdirectory tree and I could cope.

Is %UserProfile% an environment variable? Will there be multiple settings of it? Hopefully if the user's data is all in one subdirectory tree and I could cope. I'm not sure if it will work for software though, it tends to require random setup like registry changes and would also require reinstallation. Which may be difficult if it was pay-to-install software of if the original vendor is defunct.

mehrdadn 9y ago
> Is %UserProfile% an environment variable? Is $HOME an environmental variable? It's certainly exposed as one. Same here. > Will there be multiple settings of it? Will there be multiple settings of $HOME? You can certainly set it to a different value for some program, but does that mean you have multiple settings of it? Same here. > Hopefully if the user's data is all in one subdirectory tree and I could cope. "Hopefully" the same is true when you do the same on Linux and cope there? > I'm not sure if it will work for software though, it tends to require random setup like registry changes and would also require reinstallation. Which may be difficult if it was pay-to-install software of if the original vendor is defunct. ...what? You explicitly asked about saving "user's own data" and not "installed software". The entire point of your comment was that you wanted to wipe the software while keeping the user data. So I gave you a solution for keeping the user data that let you wipe the software. Now you complain it doesn't work for migrating installed software?!
- lexicality 9y ago
  > ...what? You explicitly asked about saving "user's own data" and not "installed software". The entire point of your comment was that you wanted to wipe the software and keep the user data. So I gave you a solution for keeping the user data and letting you wipe the software. Now you complain it doesn't work for migrating installed software?! I think they want to disentangle the user's installed software from the OS, rather than disentangling the software from the data.
  - incompatible 9y ago
    Yes, that was it.
  - mehrdadn 9y ago
    > I think they want to disentangle the user's installed software from the OS, rather than disentangling the software from the data. Huh? /home on Linux contains user software now? That's literally the example he gave for this on Linux...
    - incompatible 9y ago
      There's a missing step after reinstalling the OS of running one of more apt-get commands to reinstall the software. Windows doesn't have apt-get of course. I do tend to have software installed in my home directory (stuff I wrote or at least compiled myself) and generally it would still work after replacing the OS. Missing shared libraries could break it, but it's not the sort of software where that's an issue. If a Linux system has proprietary software installed, you'd probably also have to copy /usr/local and/or /opt. Hopefully it would be statically linked or supplying any share libraries it needed but I suppose there's no guarantee.
      - jodrellblank 9y ago
        Windows doesn't have apt-get of course. It has an app store, and it has an installable package manager - https://chocolatey.org/ https://chocolatey.org/
        incompatible 9y ago
        A command line on the front page...the typical Windows user would run away screaming.
      - mehrdadn 9y ago
        It's quite spectacular how you went from saving > Somebody [who] just asked me to help fix their Windows laptop to saving > software installed in my home directory (stuff I wrote or at least compiled myself) This person asking you for help with a slow Windows computer (this person is yourself?) also compiles and installs his own software in his /home? So you keep his /home in an effort to keep his software... because somehow he doesn't know how to reinstall Windows? But anyway... ---------------------------------------- > There's a missing step after reinstalling the OS of running one of more apt-get commands to reinstall the software. Windows doesn't have apt-get of course. Chocolatey, or just run the .MSI/.EXE... > I do tend to have software installed in my home directory (stuff I wrote or at least compiled myself) and generally it would still work after replacing the OS. I do tend to have software installed in my D:\ drive (stuff I wrote or at least compiled myself) and generally it would still work after replacing the OS. > Missing shared libraries could break it, but it's not the sort of software where that's an issue. Missing shared libraries pretty much never break those on Windows... there's literally only 2 shared libraries that a large fraction of programs need (Visual C/C++ runtimes) and those are installed by practically any program you try to install so you won't even notice.
- incompatible 9y ago
  Well, in Linux the home directory is read from /etc/passwd at login and $HOME is set from that, and $HOME is presumably and environment variable like any other. It's up to each bit of software whether it cares about such things. That's how I understand it. On Windows I get confused with "administrator" vs "all users" vs "current user" vs "some other user" that an organisation is using for some reason. It seems like stuff can end up in different places. Sorry if I gave the impression that I don't care about the software the user installed themselves. Well, actually I don't, but the user themselves may care.
  - mehrdadn 9y ago
    > Well, in Linux the home directory is read from /etc/passwd at login and $HOME is set from that, and $HOME is presumably and environment variable like any other. It's up to each bit of software whether it cares about such things. On Windows the user profile location is read from the registry (if you care: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList) which is on the disk (if you care: %SystemRoot%\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM) and %UserProfile% is set for that, and %UserProfile% is presumably an environment like any other. It's up to each bit of software whether it cares about such things. > On Windows I get confused with "administrator" vs "all users" vs "current user" vs "some other user" that an organisation is using for some reason. It seems like stuff can end up in different places. On Linux I get confused with /root vs /usr/share vs /var vs ... vs ~/ vs ~some-other-user/ that an organization is using for some reason. It seems like stuff can end up in different places. I can't say I see what's so amazing about the Linux and so awful about the Windows near-equivalents here.
    - incompatible 9y ago
      I'm still missing the step of how I preserve any proprietary software the user installed (equivalent to preserving or copying /opt and /usr/local in Linux). Otherwise it may be similar in principle, just somewhat user-unfriendly in the Windows version. /etc/passwd is a bit easier than HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.
      - 9y ago

mehrdadn 9y ago

> Is %UserProfile% an environment variable? Is $HOME an environmental variable? It's certainly exposed as one. Same here. > Will there be multiple settings of it? Will there be multiple settings of $HOME? You can certainly set it to a different value for some program, but does that mean you have multiple settings of it? Same here. > Hopefully if the user's data is all in one subdirectory tree and I could cope. "Hopefully" the same is true when you do the same on Linux and cope there? > I'm not sure if it will work for software though, it tends to require random setup like registry changes and would also require reinstallation. Which may be difficult if it was pay-to-install software of if the original vendor is defunct. ...what? You explicitly asked about saving "user's own data" and not "installed software". The entire point of your comment was that you wanted to wipe the software while keeping the user data. So I gave you a solution for keeping the user data that let you wipe the software. Now you complain it doesn't work for migrating installed software?!

lexicality 9y ago
> ...what? You explicitly asked about saving "user's own data" and not "installed software". The entire point of your comment was that you wanted to wipe the software and keep the user data. So I gave you a solution for keeping the user data and letting you wipe the software. Now you complain it doesn't work for migrating installed software?! I think they want to disentangle the user's installed software from the OS, rather than disentangling the software from the data.
- incompatible 9y ago
  Yes, that was it.
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  > I think they want to disentangle the user's installed software from the OS, rather than disentangling the software from the data. Huh? /home on Linux contains user software now? That's literally the example he gave for this on Linux...
  - incompatible 9y ago
    There's a missing step after reinstalling the OS of running one of more apt-get commands to reinstall the software. Windows doesn't have apt-get of course. I do tend to have software installed in my home directory (stuff I wrote or at least compiled myself) and generally it would still work after replacing the OS. Missing shared libraries could break it, but it's not the sort of software where that's an issue. If a Linux system has proprietary software installed, you'd probably also have to copy /usr/local and/or /opt. Hopefully it would be statically linked or supplying any share libraries it needed but I suppose there's no guarantee.
    - jodrellblank 9y ago
      Windows doesn't have apt-get of course. It has an app store, and it has an installable package manager - https://chocolatey.org/ https://chocolatey.org/
      - incompatible 9y ago
        A command line on the front page...the typical Windows user would run away screaming.
    - mehrdadn 9y ago
      It's quite spectacular how you went from saving > Somebody [who] just asked me to help fix their Windows laptop to saving > software installed in my home directory (stuff I wrote or at least compiled myself) This person asking you for help with a slow Windows computer (this person is yourself?) also compiles and installs his own software in his /home? So you keep his /home in an effort to keep his software... because somehow he doesn't know how to reinstall Windows? But anyway... ---------------------------------------- > There's a missing step after reinstalling the OS of running one of more apt-get commands to reinstall the software. Windows doesn't have apt-get of course. Chocolatey, or just run the .MSI/.EXE... > I do tend to have software installed in my home directory (stuff I wrote or at least compiled myself) and generally it would still work after replacing the OS. I do tend to have software installed in my D:\ drive (stuff I wrote or at least compiled myself) and generally it would still work after replacing the OS. > Missing shared libraries could break it, but it's not the sort of software where that's an issue. Missing shared libraries pretty much never break those on Windows... there's literally only 2 shared libraries that a large fraction of programs need (Visual C/C++ runtimes) and those are installed by practically any program you try to install so you won't even notice.
incompatible 9y ago
Well, in Linux the home directory is read from /etc/passwd at login and $HOME is set from that, and $HOME is presumably and environment variable like any other. It's up to each bit of software whether it cares about such things. That's how I understand it. On Windows I get confused with "administrator" vs "all users" vs "current user" vs "some other user" that an organisation is using for some reason. It seems like stuff can end up in different places. Sorry if I gave the impression that I don't care about the software the user installed themselves. Well, actually I don't, but the user themselves may care.
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  > Well, in Linux the home directory is read from /etc/passwd at login and $HOME is set from that, and $HOME is presumably and environment variable like any other. It's up to each bit of software whether it cares about such things. On Windows the user profile location is read from the registry (if you care: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList) which is on the disk (if you care: %SystemRoot%\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM) and %UserProfile% is set for that, and %UserProfile% is presumably an environment like any other. It's up to each bit of software whether it cares about such things. > On Windows I get confused with "administrator" vs "all users" vs "current user" vs "some other user" that an organisation is using for some reason. It seems like stuff can end up in different places. On Linux I get confused with /root vs /usr/share vs /var vs ... vs ~/ vs ~some-other-user/ that an organization is using for some reason. It seems like stuff can end up in different places. I can't say I see what's so amazing about the Linux and so awful about the Windows near-equivalents here.
  - incompatible 9y ago
    I'm still missing the step of how I preserve any proprietary software the user installed (equivalent to preserving or copying /opt and /usr/local in Linux). Otherwise it may be similar in principle, just somewhat user-unfriendly in the Windows version. /etc/passwd is a bit easier than HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.
    - 9y ago