How to copy user settings in Windows 7 home premium?

[mm302]

I just got a new Windows 7 home premium x64 box at home and I'm going through the mundane task of setting everything up how I like.

Is there any easy way to copy all or some of my settings to other accounts on this PC? It is a real pain to help other family members when all of their settings are different. If I could just clone everything that would be fine or if you can only copy certain application settings that would be better than nothing.

I'm talking about things like:

•file explorer: view file extensions, display columns, expand tree, and other settings
•cd/dvd auto run defaults
•menu: small menu icons, auto hide, etc.
•firefox settings and add-ons

 

[Chainzsaw]

Yes.

First you will need to make another admin account.

Now reboot and login with the new admin account.

Go to C:\Users

Now copy your profile of how everything is set up and copy all of the contents except "My Documents" and "Cookies" into the "Default" account. Note this will only work if they haven't already logged in.

From:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/0be9b1f0-a21f-4889-9568-6ec455689aa9

"I got this to work, but it's no where near as elegant as with XP and Vista via the User Profile "copy to" method above:

Customize a user profile as needed
Go to Control Panel and create a new dummy admininstrator
Reboot, log in as the dummy admin
Browse to C: and go into the Folder settings and Show all hidden/system files
Browse to C:\Users and CTRL-drag the Default folder to make a second (backup) copy of it
Browse to C:\Users and CTRL-drag the customized user profile to make a second copy of it
SHIFT-DEL the original Default folder
Rename the customized folder copy to Default
Create a new dummy admin and reboot/log in to test it

I've not tested this extensively yet but this seemed to work with the exception that the desktop background pic was gone leaving a black background. I fixed this easily by re-selecting the correct background pic.

I really hope that MS restores the previous method as this seems very sketchy to me and I'd hate to have to use this in a production environment."

 

[mm302]

I was able to get this to work in a much easier way using Windows Easy Transfer. Hit the start button and type "Windows Easy Transfer" and follow the wizard.

I was able to copy a user on a PC to a different user on the same PC. It works like a wizard, you say you are on the old PC, select the media to write the data to, select the users and items to copy, copy the data, restart wizard, say you are on new pc, and select new user ID and copy data.


http://superuser.com/questions/354019/howdo-i-copy-user-settings-to-a-windows-7-machine

 

[mm302]

thanks for the answer, but I found an easier way using Windows Easy Transfer.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Well glad you got it going.