First, I have a disc install, not Steam . . .just wanted to get that important detail out there.

So, a while back I built a new PC. I still have Morrowind on my laptop, with a nice load order that I like with over 100 esp/esm files, the version of mlox, Wrye Mash, TES3cmd, etc I like and everything is working great.

When I installed modded Oblivion to my new PC, I installed exactly the same load order as I have on my laptop, but I did it all manually, first installing the game, then going through all the steps you go through to get modded Oblivion up and running smoothly. The whole process took an entire weekend.

If I do the same process with Morrowind, it might be a little quicker, since I have fewer mods, but it is still going to be an all day job, since I will have to go back and check the readmes for everything to make sure I don't miss a step somewhere along the line, etc. It is just a time consuming job to install 20 GB of software one by one.

But since Morrowind does not seem to care about the registry, I am wondering if I can just install Morrowind to one location (maybe in a back-up directory, sicne I always keep a vanilla copy as a backup) and then just copy/paste my entire Morrowind folder from the laptop to the PC in a different location?

Or maybe just copy/paste it on top of the installed Morrowind and replace everything?

If I can do that, it would be a heck of a lot easier than installing everything manually.

Anyone know if this will work? Or if there are any problems with doing it this way that I have not anticipated?

You can just copy-paste, even without installing.

What Sataniel said. There maybe some utilities which refer to the InstallPath registry key but the ones you mention either sit in the MW directory or can be placed in Data Files.

I'm not exactly positive, but I believe you will have to install the game on your new new pc. MW does check the registry for where to find the install CD when the game starts. But all the other stuff you should be able to do cut and paste for the most part. Every so often I mess things up so that I have to start over from scratch, so as a piece of advice, I'd suggest install the game, outside of Program Files, and treat that install location as a do not touch archive from which you can use to make clones to use to play the game.

Thanks to both of you. Other than the utilities previously mentioned (mlox, Wrye Mash and TES3cmd), the only other tools I have installed are MCP, MGE XE and TESTool (for merged objects). Those are all in the MW directory.

I initially installed MGSO, but won't ever change the "options". I used MGSO as a base, and if I make further changes it will be through Wrye Mash/manual install methods, rather than tinkering with the MGSE option.exe files.

I'd say double check the pinned threads about installing then. I have the disc GOTY game. The behavior on my pc is that when I start the game, it looks for the CD. If it finds it, it starts, otherwise it asks me to put the CD in the drive first.

Yeah, that was my plan. Install to a backup directory (outside of Program Files) that I will keep untouched, and then copy/paste the entire modded morrowind folder from laptop to my C:Games folder, where I keep the games I am playing. I even have a dedicated CD drive that I installed in my new PC just for Morrowind (and one for Oblivion), so I can just leave the discs in and never have to switch them.

Install the base game on the new system (this places all needed registry entries etc.) - then copy\paste all of the files from the old system to the new system (just copy the entire morrowind folders to the new system) -- that way you move the entire game already set up properly from the old system to the new with everything the same and yet still have the registry files etc. installed on the new system.

This is fairly simple, actually. My process:

- Do a fresh disc install of Morrowind. This is important because some programs (MGE for instance) refer to the registry for some settings. This is mostly to get an entry for the programs associated with the base game install (Morrowind and the CS) into the registry.

** Make sure you install to a folder outside of Program Files (I always use C:\Morrowind), newer versions of windows are funny about permissions for programs installed to Program Files, so this saves some hassle down the road.

- Do fresh installs of any utilities you use (MGE, Wyre Mash, etc) that require registry entries or external libraries you may not have on the new machine.

- Rename your new Morrowind Directory to MorrowindOld or what have you, it's not important.

- Copy over your original install, rename the directory to match the path you created for your fresh install (E.G. C:\Morrowind).

- Check for function of the game and your utilites. You can delete the "fresh disc" install (the first directory you renamed earlier) with no problems.

Everything should work fine, since essentially all that's been done is copying the install "in place" as it were. The important step is creating registry entries for the various programs and utilities involved with your Morrowind install. Your configurations, patched .EXE files and whatnot will have come over with your original directory so no action should need to be taken there.

Of course, YMMV.

Best,