I'm going to be moving oblivion over to a new pc. The one I'm currently on is Vista laptop, the new one is a Windows 7 desktop.

Is there a way to move Oblivion over onto the new computer without having to reinstall everything? Is it possible, for instance, to copy the relevant files on folders off the PC I'm currently playing on and simply place them in the new PC at the right spots, or am I doomed to have to do a heap of reinstalling instead?

You have to reinstall. Oblivion is a program, thus it needs to be installed in such a manner that the windows registry can recognize it's existence.

That said, you can copy your saves, and place them in the saves directory on the new computer.

Naw, you don't have to reinstall. If you do a search you can find the registry strings that get created for oblivion, then just make a regedit file that will make the changes when run. This is what i used, but do a search in case I'm forgetting anything.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bethesda Softworks][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion]"Installed Path"="C:\\Games\\Oblivion\\"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\1.00.0000][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion - Construction Set][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion - Construction Set\1.00.0000]

bad idea..... suggesting registry editing to just anyone is really not a good plan. One simple missed keystroke, and your system is hosed. Better plan would be to install the base game, so the registry entries etc get created, and then simply copy over the oblivion folder from the older machine, overwriting what is currently in the Oblivion folder on the new machine. Will have to reinstall utilities and such though.