Simple question (maybe). Lets say you've got a game installed onto one computer on an external hard-drive. Could you simply plug that drive into a new computer and transfer the installed files in the games installed directory over into the new machine and run the program from there as if it had been installed?

Far as I can tell the only missing part would be the computers registry entry but shouldn't that solve itself when the exe is run for the first time on the new machine?


I know its possible to do this within the same machine (transferring installed files from one drive to another) and the only thing that breaks are shortcut links.

No opening an exe file won't solve your registry problem, only by reinstalling it.

Yeah, it depends on the game. If it's smart, it will update any required registry entries, but most don't.

I hate to think how many human lives have been wasted trying to work around the abomination that is the Windows registry.

It depends on the game. Defender's Quest, for instance, is completely portable and doesn't use the registry for anything. I kept it on a thumb drive for a while so I could play it whenever I was bored. (If you want to play the same savegame, though, you still need to copy the appdata folder to the local machine separately.)

For most games, though, the registry is an issue.

You're fine with DOS games. Registry entries are, unfortunately, often made at point of installation.