Your personalized settings make your Windows XP experience unique. These settings affect your wallpaper, your screensaver and the special look and feel of the operating system itself. If your computer suffers a major failure and you need to reinstall Windows XP or use system restore, there is the possibility that you will lose your personalized settings. Fortunately, it is easy to back up those settings in Windows XP, with the Windows XP Backup Utility.
Download and install the Windows XP backup utility. If you're using Windows XP, the backup utility should already be included in your Windows XP installation. Downloading is most often required by users of Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition.
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Run the Windows XP Backup Utility. It will appear in the Start Menu under the "System Tools" tab in the Accessories folder.
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Click "Next" once the Wizard loads to leave the welcome screen.
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Choose one of the backup options listed. If there is more than one user on the PC, choose "Everyone's documents and settings." If you are the sole user, simply select "My Documents and Settings."
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Click "Next."
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Choose where you want to back up your personalized settings. You may store them on an external hard drive, a separate partition on the current drive or another computer that is connected to a network.
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Click on the "Advanced" button to customize the way in which your personalized settings are backed up. It is often best to just let Windows XP handle the process, but if you know you want to back up certain files or set up a scheduled back up process, you can do so from the "Advanced" tab.
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Click "Finish" to begin the back up process. It may take several minutes or more to complete the backup. You will receive a notification message when the backup procedure has completed.
Tips & Warnings
It's not necessary to buy a third-party back up application if you only want to back up your personalized settings. The Windows XP Backup Utility is free and is more than capable of helping you with conventional back up needs.
Don't try to manipulate the system registry if you aren't completely clear as to what you are doing. Doing so can cause serious problems with your computer, possibly even causing it to crash and become inoperable. Create a system restore point before you modify the registry, so that you have a way of recovering lost data.
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