this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Which directories should I back up in Windows before moving to Linux? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 2 days ago by enchantedgoldapple@sopuli.xyz to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/40885318

I'm going to switch from Windows 11 to Linux soon but first I wish to backup every every data and config files I can in my current Windows installation, even those that wouldn't natively work in Linux. I know the \Users folder is important to back up, but I don't know what other directories I am missing.

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[–] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

Mainly the users folder(s) e.g. c:\users\YOURUSERNAME , the hidden appdata\local and appdata\roaming folders in there probably contain way more than you actually need to back up but you could back up the whole thing to be on the safe side. Most of your user's program configuration data is in those folders.

Sometimes systemwide config data is in the hidden c:\programdata folder but I wouldn't back that up aside from specific programs you really want to save config info for.

Aside from that any other folders you created containing data you care about.

And like the other comment mentioned, the Windows registry also has lots of program config data but I usually skip that, the majority of it is useless.. but if there's a great need for you to export a specific registry tree you could do that via the command prompt to export to a backup text file. I think reg export would do it https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/reg-export