IMPORTANT UPDATE ! ! !
Moving a ton of panels and launchers to a freshly installed Linux is doable, but it's not for the faint of heart.
Just some notes from my current experiments:
To begin with I am storing all my data files in a single directory tree under the Documents folder.
In fact, my folder currently looks something like this:
Documents
-- Daily Diary
-- Projects
-- Project Archives
There are also numerous other folders in these subfolders. But the idea here is that everything is kept in the Documents Folder. This way I only need to copy over the documents folder to the new computer and all the data is preserved with precisely the same paths. This is important if the launchers are going to work without needing to edit them all to change paths.
So the data needs to be copied over first so it's available when you move over the panels and launchers that point to these files.
The next thing I did was copy over the entire panel folder. That is stored in user/.config/xfce4 (Change the name of the original panel folder first just to hang onto it in case you want to revert back to the original configuration.)
Then I went into the xfconf folder opened the xfce-perchannel-xml folder, and replaced the xfce4-panel.xml file. (again, rename the old file just to save a copy of it before replacing it)
What you end up with at that point is an absolute NIGHTMARE! The original panel is all filled with red X's and nothing works!
Don't panic. Just chose SHUT DOWN and reboot. When it reboots MAGIC OCCURS and all the new panels and launchers suddenly appear with all the unique icons you had assigned them.
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Unfortunately this doesn't work without a hitch. Some of the launchers wouldn't work because I had included the user name of the other computer in the launcher paths when I created them. So I had to go in an edit the user name on the path of all those launchers. However, I also realized that this could have been avoided. When setting up the launchers always start from %/Documents/whatever . Then it won't matter if the user names are different. I had used /home/user/Document/blah/blah/blah instead of %/Documents
I'm learning the hard way by trial and error. So heads-up on that one.
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More potential trouble:
Well, it should be obvious that you need to have installed the software that the launchers call. So this new computer will need to have all the same software installed. But as long as the software is there they should work. EXCEPT in the case of WINE installed software.
I have a few Windows programs I installed via WINE. Those specific launchers will need to be recreated because WINE programs have special C: drive Windows installation directories. For me this was only 4 programs. And it was still nice having the original launchers there to see what I needed to replace. So at least the launchers were copied over. I all needed to do was create new ones and then delete the old ones. But at least I could see where I wanted them to be.
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So overall, it was well worth it for me. But it's kind of scary when you first copy the files over and it looks like everything is going to crash. ;D
Just reboot and that should do the magic. Then clean up any spilled WINE. Applications that were installed by Linux all seemed to work without a hitch. It was only the WINE app Launchers that needed to be recreated.
Like I say. this is not for the faint of heart, but it's certainly doable. Just remember to always start the launcher paths at %/Documents. Don't start any paths in the launchers at /home/user/ or you'll need to edit the user name on all the launchers like I did. :
Live and learn!
I'm going to do this again too because I have four computers I'm installing Linux on and I want the same panels and launchers on all of them. I'll be an expert at this before I'm done. 8)
