New 64bit clean install question

I would like to do a clean install on my wife's PC, going from Win 10 Pro 32bit to Win 10 Pro 64bit. However, she has multitudes of icons and software installed, making a clean install very difficult to say the least.

I would like to copy her desktop, download folder, AppData folders, and all her icons to a different HDD not affected by the clean install. Once the install is complete, if I move the old desktop (icons, etc) and download folder to the new installation:

1) What kind of errors will happen on just the move back?
2) If I select an old icon now moved to the new desktop (for example, she has an icon that brings up Yahoo email - URL of yahoo.com in the URL property box), that should still work, right?
3) If she has any 'saved games' folders stored in her 'AppData' folders, could those be copied back after the install (I realize that any 'software' that she installed on the old system will need to be reinstalled on the new system) or would she lose progress in any games?

HELP. She's making me write this post so she can be at ease for the clean install.

Thanks.

Its not straight foward you can copy file on the desktop but icons point to a locations which wont be there. download folder is ok but you will need to take ownership of the folders as you wont have any rights. Appdatawill be the same you wont have rights and dependong on the software may or may not work.

Does the pc have more than 4 gig of ram if not there is no point going to 64 bit

Yes, 16Gb. That's the reason for the upgrade - she has so much going on now that ram is maxed and paging is slammed and it takes forever for her to do stuff.

I figure that if I copy an icon back to the new install, it won't work, but it'll let me know what's missing so I can install it. Hopefully, she'll have a copy of the install programs in her download folders. As far as Word, etc, I've gotten Office 365 that I'm going to put on the new install. If I copy back all her document folders to the right locations, 365 should open those documents, right/

To get a list of everything installed You do not need third-party software if you use the command line, which is probably the top reason why you'd want to use it.

1. Tap on Windows-R to bring up the run box, type cmd and hit enter.
2. Use the command wmic to open the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line and scripting interface.
3. Run the command /output:c:\users\username\softwarelist.txt product get name, version, installlocation to create the new softwarelist.txt file and fill it with date.
4. The command looks up the name, version and path the software is installed to. You can remove information if you do not need them, or add information such as installdate, vendor, description or installstate to the output.
5. Note that you need to replace c:\users\username\softwarelist.txt with a directory of your choosing on your computer. At the very least, it is necessary to replace username with your account username.

rzn6jw said:

I would like to copy her desktop, download folder, AppData folders, and all her icons to a different HDD not affected by the clean install.

This is what I have done in the past...
Using Macrium Reflect Free, save a backup image of the OS partition only to the second HDD. Do a clean install to the primary drive (HDD or SSD). Then I shrink the new OS partition enough to make room to restore only the used space of the old installation, then restore the old OS partition to the free space. Then at your leisure you can copy stuff out of the old OS partition into the new OS. Once you get the new OS running 100%, then delete the old OS partition and either extend the new OS to fill the space again, or create a data partition in the vacated space. Before I make the backup image of the old OS, I do a good disk cleanup to minimize the size of the backup file and the restored partition. Also run "powercfg -h off" to eliminate the hibernation system file which will be several GB in size.

I am not going to suggest setting up dual booting with the old restored OS and the new OS because without a second license for Windows that would violate the EULA.