Application Backups

I need software that will permit me to back up applications in a manner similar to that which happens with some uninstallation programs. I want to back up the applications, complete with all associated settings, to other drives (usb?) without uninstalling the existing application(s). Any suggestions?

 

You cannot backup applications either individually or collectively. What you can do though is create an image of your drive or OS partition. This will create a restorable backup containing everything that is on the drive or partition, so could be used to transfer your system, apps and anything else you keep there to a new drive or to restore your system to an earlier state should that become necessary - viruses, system instability etc.

If you are using 7 or 8 the capability is built in. For earlier versions there are good free third party apps.

 

As Earthling said, you can create an image of your drive with excellent freeware third party software and store that image on a USB flash drive of sufficient size.

You can also clone the drive with excellent freeware third party software. Just make sure the USB connected drive hard drive is the same size or larger and the same interface (IDE, SATA, eSATA) should you need to replace the drive you cloned.

If you're running Windows XP, you can also run ASR (Automated System Recovery) according to the instructions given here.

With imaging, the image file will be compressed to varying degrees depending on your settings for the imaging app. With cloning or ASR, there is no compression.

With both imaging and cloning, the System Volume Information folder, used for Restore Points, will be included. With Windows XP ASR, it isn't. In fact, a number of file types are excluded by default. I've done all of the aforementioned, and the ASR .BKF file is considerably smaller than the total used space on my hard drive as is the .IMG file I created because I chose high compression for the image.

Software titles include Macrium Reflect free, AOMEI Backupper, EaseUStodoBackup free and several others.

Whichever method or software you choose will accomplish your desired task.

 

This is close.. PickMeApp http://www.blogsolute.com/transfer-installed-software-new-computer/18310/