Windows Backup & Restore: What to Keep from AppData?
There's no universal solution to this question. No one will ever give you a comprehensive answer because there are so many applications. Each application stores its preferences differently, and you have to know for each particular application what it stores in AppData
to decide whether it's worth saving or not.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
- Firefox stores its profile and general settings in
AppData\Roaming
. I think it's worth saving, the browser will be configured the way it was, including bookmarks, and even open tabs will be restored.
At the same time the data Firefox stores inAppData\Local
are useless: there are different caches. - Opera browser follows the same approach. You find its generic settings in
AppData\Roaming
and (mostly) throw-away data inAppData\Local
.
Yet if you used Opera Mail client, all the mails are saved inAppData\Local
, thus you may want to keep your mail messages. - Microsoft Outlook stores its personal files with mail in
AppData\Local
. - foobar2000 audio player stores its settings and playlists in
AppData\Roaming
.
Usually data in AppData\Roaming
are more important than in AppData\Local
.