Moving WD to a new/different PC

To move your current Weather Display to a new PC, follow these steps:

Read this entire FAQ, including the notes, before starting the move!

On the old computer, from the Weather Display main screen go “Action”, “Back Up Windows Registry Entries”.

Shut down WD to close all files.

Now copy C:\wdisplay and all sub directories from the old computer to the new one [note 1].

If you are using files and/or images from other locations on the old computer, you will also need to move them to the appropriate location on the new one.

On the new computer, open the databackup folder. Find a file called “wdisplayftp.reg” and simply double-click that file to update the registry entries.

Now download and complete a full install of Weather Display on the new computer. This is very important, you need to run a full install to get all the components of WD registered on the new computer.

If using a serial or USB weather station connect it to the new computer.

If you have switched from a Serial connection to a USB-Serial adaptor check in Windows Device Manager, “Ports (COM & LPT)”, to verify that the driver is installed and to get the assigned Com Port number.

Start Weather Display and change the Com Port number as necessary.

Notes

Note 1. From Windows Vista through 10 it is necessary to install to C:\wdisplay and not C:\Program Files\wdisplay to avoid User Access Control and Administrator Permissions issues. Also the main WD program “weatherdisplay.exe” must be set to run as Administrator. To do that open File Explorer, locate the “weatherdisplay.exe” program in C:\wdisplay, right-click on it, select Properties, Compatibility, check the “Run this program as an administrator” box, hit Apply and OK buttons.

Note 2. If you can’t see the file extensions when looking at the files (e.g. you find “wdisplay” without the “.ini” extension) you will need to change a setting in Windows. While viewing the files in File Explorer click on the “View” tab. Under “show/hide” check the box for “File name extensions”.

Note 3. If your new computer uses a different drive letter (e.g. C: drive when it was D: drive before), then you will need to either edit the “wdisplay.ini” settings file for all references to the wrong drive and the “wdisplayftp.ini” settings in the registry; or change all the file and drive references in WD after you have started it with the settings files from the old computer.

I am following the steps on the FAQ and I think I have done this before.

Action → Backup registry
Copy the wdisplay directory from old machine to new
On new machine double click the registry file
Install wdisplay

Launch wdisplay which is then in trial mode. Am I missing a step?

No. . . but WD shouldn’t be in trial mode :confused:

Did you instal WD to the same directory as your copy?

Another thought - is the registry file you loaded definitely the one you backed up? Check the date/time on the file to be 100% sure.

I figured it out, rookie move on my part. I uninstalled, extracted my zip file to c:\wdisplay and clicked on the reg file again which was the current one I had from the other machine. Seems I had extracted to c:\wdisplay\wdisplay

Arg, that left a mark. Appreciate the quick help as usual.

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