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Recently I ran into a problem with Start button and task bar not responding to mouse clicks on Windows 10. The only solution I found was to create a new account or reinstall the operating system entirely.

My question is how do I migrate user specific files/folders to my newly created profile? I have Atom (text editor), Slime (The Superior Lisp Interaction Mode for Emacs), and other stuff in my \AppData folder installed/located in my old profile folder.

Should I consider deleting and then reinstalling them in my new account?

Wes Sayeed
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cybnox
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  • You should be able to copy things in AppData to another installation and after installing the software in another account it should use the AppData. You could make a new account, copy the data over and see if the programs recognise it as-is. If they don't, no harm done. – mxbi Apr 24 '16 at 12:38
  • Sorry for the inconvenience again, but let me restate my question this way: there are two major solutions: 1)System reintallation 2)Account creation and migration. I've chosen the second one. Also i would like to point out that Atom and Slime folders are located _ouside_ of the AppData folder. – cybnox Apr 24 '16 at 13:18
  • Are you on preview release or stable ? – SeanClt Apr 24 '16 at 13:20
  • I am currently on stable release – cybnox Apr 24 '16 at 13:21

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I don't know about Atom, Slime, or the other stuff, but generally speaking, the files in your AppData folder merely store user-specific application settings and will usually be regenerated by those applications when they are next run.

With some applications you can carry the settings over to the new profile by copying their folders, but not all. Also be careful with Microsoft- and Windows-related folders.

If these programs actually installed themselves to your profile AppData folder instead of the Program Files folder (likely with open-source Linux software ported to Windows), then you should be able to just copy their folders over no problem. Such programs usually just rely on config files and don't use the registry to save their config. Just note that you may need to modify the path in your shortcuts.

Wes Sayeed
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