Must I reinstall all VST Plugins after reinstalling the OS?

[Scr1pt3r]

Hi guys,
There's a problem most of you probably noticed.
When for some reason you need to reinstall your OS you got to reinstall all your vst plugins.
So I thought of this solution : Make a partition for the OS and the program files folder, so lets say its 10Gb.
The solution is to install the OS and to do all the vst plugins installations and then ghost the drive . So when ever you'll need to reinstall the OS you could simply load that ghost image and thats it.

A 2nd solution which is way better and thats the reason why I post this post is maybe there's some registry copier, I save all the VST Plugins on drive E , is there any app which will save from the registry everything related to E:\VSTPlugins\ ?
So whenever you reinstall your OS you could simply load it into the registry.
Thats a better solution than ghosting the drive but the question is whether its possible and how to do it ?

[Scr1pt3r]

*bump*

[C00kie]

Do it manually Open regedit, find E: and export the found keys to a .reg file. I'm sure this can be banged into a visual basic script in like 10 minutes.

There are problems in any scenario if you reinstall your OS. Hopefully you don't need to do that very often

One problem is: you never know for sure that registry entries are the only things the plugins depend on at the OS drive. The plugin might have installed some common DLL's in c:\windows\system32 or any other location it found convenient.

The same goes for the host software... Restoring old data on a new location depends greatly on how the software is designed. Some programs don't mind at all when being relocated or when registry keys are missing, they just recreate them (that's how I like it btw)

I keep a copy of the ZIP-files or installation EXE's I downloaded. So in case of having to restore I just reinstall them and know 4 sure they'll work And it's a grand opportunity to do some sifting and leave out the ones you don't like anymore.

I would't know how certain challenge/response registration systems work on exported & imported registry keys. Could be that some sort of fingerprint is used to verify you don't share the registered application with your friends.

[smp]

... And it's a grand opportunity to do some sifting and leave out the ones you don't like anymore.

OT I know, but when I recently formatted my drives and reinstalled Win2k, I jumped at the opportunity to do exactly this. I had a shedload of freebies that I had played with and then left there "just in case". I definitely saved everything (you do never know, after all ), but I reinstalled only the bare minimum. I plan to force myself to learn how to use the stuff I've bought this way

Back on topic, I don't know of any way to do this, or even if it is possible

-s

[Muzik 4 Machines]

i did it with all my vst on drive e
some worked( mostly the one without installers as you would guess but some that are even copy protected(some NI worked some not)
all steinberg plugs worked except magneto and lm4
all dongle ones worked too
the one not working now that i think of it are either the one where the dx relies on the vst DLL or the reverse
or the case that there is a standalone version
but thats for my system

[DuX]

Most of the VST's relie upon some kind of registry key, and most of them keep them under HKLM\Software or HKCU\Software, so could backup quite a few of them by backuping the dll and coresponding key or keys from the registry. It's easy to backup registry keys, just find the key you need, go to registry-registry backup, and save the key. When you want to install it back again, just doubleclick the .reg file and click -yes-, then put the .dll file into VST folder and that should be it. If it doesn't work, then WTF, you have to reinstall it normally, but in my experience, quite a few VST\VSTi's can be installed that way, and I prefer it that way, too . The only trick is how to find what files and registry keys does particular VST\VSTi need, but to help me with that, I use "JV16 Powertools" which tells me about the new registry keys a program made, every time I install something [so there's no use for it if you don't have it right from the start], also it is very useful to throw an eye on files called install.log [open it in notepad] which are used to deinstall programs. Everything concerning the installation and everything you need to know about the installation of most programs, which keys it made, which files it needs etc., is written in this log file.

hey, that's my job to know that...

Cheers. Where's that beeeer...