For those who do not sign-in to Microsoft Account and use only local accounts, is there a simple way to export local account non-OS user files? Local account directories include many OS files that get updated and/or removed with OS updates that I don't want to backup. I just want the user-created files and directories from installed 3rd party software and the user. Is there a way to export user-only files? Most of the time I just use WinRAR to archive the entire Users folder and let WinRAR spit out archiving errors from being unable to archive some OS files. Then I perform a clean OS install, create the same local user account, extract archived Users folder and chose not to over-write whichever files it already detects. Is there a cleaner way of doing the same and exclude all non-user OS-created files and directories? EDIT: The "User Profiles" section of System Properties does not allow me to copy files. That option is greyed out. I also don't want to just copy the Documents section, but all 3rd party files from User\AppData\Local, User\AppData\Roaming. I know copying/backing up some of those files is meaningless. For example, copying/pasting Chromium User Data doesn't work because that data is encrypted on per-machine-ID basis and per-user account, but most files are not encrypted that way.
Of course, you can and you can transport, make recovery files, make copies, make bacups and so on. It doesn't matter how do you sign in. The only thing - you must be an administrator or the owner of these files.
Yeah, I was asking if there was a clean way of doing so without including any OS files and/or directories/subdirectories. For example, on my phone I have a backup tool that specifically backs up non-system downloaded Apps, their settings/configs, and cache. It separates 3rd party from system apps for me. I want to do the same with a Windows account, but in terms of 3rd party files and directories (not Apps because I don't install Apps in user account folders). I can't cleanly separate them because I don't know which ones are original OS-created and which ones were created as a result of me installing and/or using 3rd party programs.
I've always just copied the entire install minus the windows folder to an external drive. Then do a clean install and manually copy stuff back as needed. Then after about a week after making sure everything works okay I delete the backup I made.
At some point when I was reinstalling Windows dozens of times I've made a simple script to move anything I deemed necessary to C:\BACKUP with an auto-generated @restore.bat @BACKUP.bat: Code: @echo off & title BACKUP taskkill /im firefox.exe /t /f 1>nul 2>nul mkdir C:\BACKUP\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo C:\BACKUP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes 2>nul cd/d C:\BACKUP for %%s in (Desktop Documents Downloads Pictures Videos) do <nul set/p @=%%s & move "%USERPROFILE%\%%s" .\ 2>nul for %%s in (Mozilla qBittorrent MPC-HC obs-studio) do <nul set/p @=%%s & move "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\%%s" .\AppData\Roaming\ 2>nul move "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\*.bat" .\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\ 2>nul move "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\*.theme" .\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\ 2>nul reg export "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit\Favorites" favorites.reg /y 2>nul reg export "HKCU\Software\MPC-HC" MPC-HC.reg /y 2>nul reg export "HKCU\Software\Valve" Valve.reg /y 2>nul >@RESTORE.BAT echo(@echo off ^& title RESTORE >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(cd/d "%%~dp0" >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(taskkill /im firefox.exe /t /f 1^>nul 2^>nul >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(for %%%%s in (Desktop Documents Downloads Pictures Videos) do ^<nul set/p @=%%%%s ^& rd /s /q "%%USERPROFILE%%\%%%%s" 2^>nul ^& move .\%%%%s "%%USERPROFILE%%\" 2^>nul >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(for %%%%s in (Mozilla qBittorrent MPC-HC obs-studio) do ^<nul set/p @=%%%%s ^& move .\AppData\Roaming\%%%%s "%%USERPROFILE%%\AppData\Roaming\" 2^>nul >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(move .\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\*.bat "%%USERPROFILE%%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\" 2^>nul >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(move .\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\*.theme "%%USERPROFILE%%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\" 2^>nul >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(rd /s /q .\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft 2^>nul ^& rd /s /q .\AppData\Local 2^>nul >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(for %%%%s in (*.reg) do echo %%%%s ^& reg import %%%%s.reg 2^>nul >>@RESTORE.BAT echo(pause pause I have misplaced somewhere the more complete version but above example is still fully usable, and easy to extend to more personal folders, local program settings and registry keys. This was meant for reinstalls of windows without formatting (just shift+f10 at setup and launch a local file manager such as totalcmd, then deleting everything on C: except BACKUP folder). Note that move on the same partition is instantaneous - just a MFT update without file copy, both the backup and the restore operations are done in a blink of an eye, without wearing a ssd drive. Since then I've switched to keeping stuff such as the firefox profile on another partition, and just link it from there: Code: @copy /y "%~dp0*.ini" "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\" @mklink /J "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\God" "%~dp0God"