I have Windows 98 SE installed on an old, aging computer (AMD K6-2). I might be buying a faster one (an used Athlon 1GHz or something) next year and wonder if it's possible to simply copy my entire harddisk contents to the new machine and let Windows re-detect all hardware devices from scratch: the motherboard, CPU, BIOS, sound, video, IDE, USB, everything. That way, I would never have to reinstall Windows, retweak my preferred settings and reinstall all of my apps as well - only minor adjustments here and there would be left.
The theory is, as someone told me a while ago, that you delete a subset of Registry keys that have to do with device enumeration, then shut down Windows.
Once I'd have my harddisk in another machine, or my existing one upgraded to a different mobo/CPU, or what have you, I would restart Windows and it would redetect everything and install the proper support for all new/changed devices.
Is this indeed possible? Which Registry keys are the ones that I would have to delete? What do you people know about this that might help me?
Right now this is just idle consideration. I won't be able to get a new computer for months, but I'm very curious anyhow.
The theory is, as someone told me a while ago, that you delete a subset of Registry keys that have to do with device enumeration, then shut down Windows.
Once I'd have my harddisk in another machine, or my existing one upgraded to a different mobo/CPU, or what have you, I would restart Windows and it would redetect everything and install the proper support for all new/changed devices.
Is this indeed possible? Which Registry keys are the ones that I would have to delete? What do you people know about this that might help me?
Right now this is just idle consideration. I won't be able to get a new computer for months, but I'm very curious anyhow.