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I'm a PC tech and I have been getting more and more Windows 8 issues. First off I hate metro, and secondly I hate "apps".

I like to do fresh installs of Windows 8. I backup my user's data and then fresh install. Assuming there is no recovery partition how can I manually backup the user's app data so that in the event of a reformat I simply redownload their apps (dumb, I wish there was a way to actually back them up too) and plop the data back in.

Do most normal people even use "apps", or do they use Windows 8 like a desktop OS? I totally dropped metro with ClassicShell.

phuclv
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apporama
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2 Answers2

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There are a couple of ways you can do this.

  1. Backup all the data using a program, like Windows 8 Apps data backup

  2. If you want you can manually backup them from these locations

Appdata

C:\ProgramFiles\WindowsAPPS

Userdata

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages

This folder can be copied. To restore the app settings, just reinstall the apps and then replace the existing folder with your backup.

Edit: added link to why you can't copy the progam files folder

When you can copy program files folder and when you can't

Patric Gustafsson
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Yes. Without apps how can you use the computer? Desktop apps are "apps" too. So are console apps.

Metro apps' data are stored in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages. The applications themselves are stored in C:\Program Files\WindowsAPPS

phuclv
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