Sync Windows settings

Question

Is it possible to synchronise certain Windows 7 settings. Things like the wallpaper you use for instance, or the programs that are stored in the start menu.

Or the programs that are docked next to your start button etc.

Answer 1

The only official transfer tool I know of Windows Easy Transfer, which however does only files.
See this article for details : What is Windows Easy Transfer & How to Backup Your Data for Transfer.

However, there are no tools that can transfer installed applications. Such a tool is even unlikely to exist, because of copyright reasons.

Most commercial products will naturally try to make it as hard as possible to copy a paid application to a second computer without paying for it.

The only truly transferable applications are portable applications.
Most of them are listed on the PortableApps.com website.

[EDIT]

You say that you are only interested in docked programs.
I know of no product that transfers these, but I added below some helpful information.

Windows 7 taskbar pinned icons are stored in two locations:

• File System:
  %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
• Registry:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband

Unfortunately, the registry information is binary-coded, so transferring it is all-or-none. In addition, the User Pinned folder is only created after the user has pinned at least one icon to the taskbar.

To deploy this, you would need to:

1. Configure the pinned items on the source Windows 7 computer
2. Export the above registry key to a file (say pinned.reg) and save the contents of the User Pinned folder
3. Copy these to the target computer: The pinned.reg file by executing it and the shortcuts by copying to the User Pinned folder (which may require creating).

Please note that I have not tested this procedure. Also, any programs whose icons you transfer should have been installed in identically-placed folders.

Answer 2

you could use dropbox to sync your user folder. simply install dropbox and change the folder where it stores your dropbox to c:\ or d:\ where ever. then create a directory junction for your user folder

mklink /j c:\Users\Userfolder c:\Dropbox\Userfolder

Everything including what wallpaper you use and all your registry settings and startmenu and so on is stored in your user folder. That should work ok. files that are in use will only sync on reboot I think.