Thanks a lot for the answers!!! I'm going to try them all, specially the copy of only
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software
part of the registry seems to be on the right direction as everything will mantain the same file structure, will keep you all updated!

As for 700 was an exageration, there are exactly 382 , and while on my recent projects I only use a few that I know very well I have a lot of old projects from my earlier days and I like sometimes revisit them and they are full of "this new reverb will make the track a lot better" mentality that I had so hence the 382. I should print everything to audio on those ones but I'm lazy.

Thanks a lot again!

 

Acronis offers harddisk cloning AND universal restore to a brand new computer (Full OS migration from and old computer to a new fresh one).
I never tested this feature, but it may save your time.

I quote :
"Restore Windows to any hardware: Acronis Universal Restore allows you to create a bootable system clone and recover to a new computer with a different processor, motherboard or drive than the original system."

 

Of course all plugins installations which rely to machine ID / mac adress / ... will need a reinstall ... but maybe it's worth the try ?

 

"...But plugin reinstallations are a huge time consuming pain in the ass. So, has anyone succeeded in adding the old registry to a new OS installation and have all (or most) the VSTs working, patched and so?"

Thanks!

My solution will not help your present situation, but should offer relief down the road.

In the future...on a fresh install with your new PC (Or current PC), update your Windows system until there are no more updates currently available.

Optional: At this point, I turn off Windows Update...not a fan of 24/7 probing.

Configure Windows the way you like to use it. Install your programs/applications.

Install your DAW config files/tracks/songs, then your plugins.

Now, save everything as it is by creating a Disk Image File. A perfect 1:1 recreation of your entire system as of the date created.

Store this image on your external drive and rename it with a title that is easily recognized like "All Plugs 11-17-23." Before you reinstall this image file, rename it back to the original title "Windows Disk Image." Check my spelling on the default image file name,it may be incorrect.

Put the image(s) in a safe folder. If you ever have to reinstall the Windows image, you will be waaaaaay ahead of the game.

If you ever run into problems, first...save any updated Daw config files/presets/patches/tracks/songs/personal files/etc to external HDD.

When you reinstsll the "All Plugs" base image you created, simply place the newly updated files you just put on your external HDD back in the places they originally were.

And you're back!

You also can save an image every week (Deleting the previous image if you like). But never get rid of the "All Plugs 11-17-23" image file. That is your protection against catostrophic failure.

*Disk images cannot transfer to another PC.


I came across this workaround while in engineering school. I had plugins/entire suites my instructor knew I couldn't afford, and to avoid "The Talk" and "The Stare", I would swap images the night before class.

Hell, I have a disk image just for photo editing. No Daws/Plugs/Music on that image.

Sorry, I could not give a quicker solution to your issue.

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2023

"But pluging reinstallations are a huge time consuming pain in the ass, so anyone had succeded into adding the old registry to a new OS installation and have all(or most) the VSTs working, patched and so?"

Thanks!

This will not help your present situation, but should offer relief down the road.

In the future...on a fresh install with your new PC, update your Windows system until there are no more updates currently available.

Optional: At this point, I turn off Windows Update...not a fan of 24/7 probing.

Configure Windows the way you like to use it. Install your programs/applications.

Install your DAW config files/tracks/songs, then your plugins.

Now, save everything as it is by creating a Disk Image File. A perfect 1:1 recreation of your entire system as of the date created.

Store this image on your external drive and rename it with a title that is easily recognized like "All Plugs 11-17-23." Before you reinstall this image file, rename it back to the original title "Windows Disk Image." Check my spelling on the default image file name, it may be incorrect.

Put the image(s) in a safe folder. If you ever have to reinstall the Windows image, you will be waaaaaay ahead of the game.

If you ever run into problems, save any updated Daw config files/presets/patches/tracks/songs/personal files/etc to external HDD.

When you reinstsll the "All Plugs" base image you created, simply place the newly updated files you just put on your external HDD back in the places they originally were.

And you're back!

*Disk images cannot transfer to another PC.


I came across this workaround while in engineering school. I had plugins/entire suites my instructor knew I couldn't afford, and to avoid "The Talk" and "The Stare", I would swap images the night before class.

Hell, I have a disk image just for photo editing. No Daws/Plugs/Music on that image.

Sorry, I could not give a quicker solution to your issue.

 

and that's precisely the problem, because softwares, plugins and dependencies get updated overtime, so you end up with useless outdated backup,

more elegant solution are snapshots and incremental backups, but Windows itself isn't designed to comply with those

 

I'm willing to bet 650 of those plugins are Waves' doing.

 

Use no install versions? I know, easy to say. But I'm a sneaky bastard

 

Yeah, I make frequent backups out of habit (Every 3-4 days). Constency is the key, and it takes less than two minutes to get it started. Sorry for the lateness.

 

Hey Merry Christmas if that's your thing! Just wanna update this as I finally had the time to do a propper reinstall.

These are the steps I followed,

1. Copied default VST3 folder to new OS
2. Copied sound related folders (Native Instruments, Karzog, etc, etc...) from Program Files, Common Files, Program Data and AppData to new OS.
3. Bring the old host file to the new OS

4. Started ableton, pointed ableton to the custom VST2 folder and to the system VST3 folder.

Without any registry edit suprisinly a LOT of plugins are working out of the box: Karzog, KhS, kontakt 5 portable, Kush... Unfiltered Audio VST2 works but VST3 has to be re-registered. Thumbs up for Psyscope2, and Swirl, which I own, and works with no futher actions needed.
Izotope is all broken and unusable.
All the ones depending on a serial has to be keygened/patched again but is not a big deal. The most pain in the ass are the ones that are legit and on Ilok, had to request a no longer reachable Machine ID, so it will be faster to replace those from the sister/russian site which is funny.

5. Exported all registry entrys about plugins from HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software and added to the new OS (prior backup of the reg), Izotope just got fixed this way but U-he and Fabfilter have to be keygen again.


In resume the thing was not bad at all, I've saved A LOT of hours doing it this way.

Cheers!

 

which precisely is a reason why iLok usb key was invented in the first place

 

I'd often wondered about this myself. This has been most helpful. I'll be building a new machine soon and would really like to skip the headache.
May I ask which OS you are moving from/to? I try to stick with VST2 where I can. So for me I think there documents, program data, etc. I was hoping to possibly compile as much from registries as possible and combine them into 1 double click solution.

 

If one has the installers and i think one should keep the installers etc the problem is not really the installing of plugins

If you change the motherboard you just gotta reinstall , i thought of ways of keeping it all intact but but nah, propably just better to reinstall everything rather than findout one by one when you are in middle of a song that plugin does not work and then search for their authorization tools

And ofc one should have backups of the harddrive but this is a different thing

 

Hey @Kingvrage I moved from windows 10 to windows 10 because some clusterfucks with the boot partitions happened when I tried to install a PCIe extension for M2 SSDs.

 

for anyone doing migrations, reinstalls or adjustments of systems,
just a friendly reminder, there's been few new releases of Hiren Boot CD (now Win11 PE core based) after almost 3 years:
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/changelog/
and also Ventoy bootloader can now bypass all Win(11) requirements crap and no need to make new bootable stick every update:
https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_news.html

 

Right it's fantastic, I use it as a multiboot key for WinPE and as many Linux distros I want.