I needed to transfer settings for five blogs from one computer to another, sparing me from re-entering that data. I found a plug-in that did not work for me – it would not list all five blogs, only the first. Then, I found a blog entry on how to backup/export settings from various programs that don’t make that easy. Note that I appended \Weblogs to the path so as to get only those settings, not everything, which the original tip was about. Worked like a charm.
Saving Your Settings – Miscellaneous Debris
5. Windows Live Writer
Another useful tool that wasn’t given an Export Settings option. There are two things to backup here:
1. My blog settings – I have 5 different blogs I manage through WLW. Here I had to go back to the Registry. Funny how it seems so old-fashioned. Export all settings from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Writer\Weblogs.
2. Blog drafts and recently-written posts are stored in My Documents\My Weblog Posts. Would be a good idea to back those up as well.
3. When restoring settings, it initially appears that while the blog settings are properly recovered, the drafts aren’t. All you need to do, though, is double-click on one of the .wpost files in the My Weblog Posts folder, and the Drafts and Recently Posted lists will get populated.
Saving Your Settings – Miscellaneous Debris
RE: Step 2 above: I use Windows Live Mesh to synchronize that folder on all machines running Windows Live Writer, so all have the same drafts.
Also: Copy files from C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Roaming\Windows Live Writer to duplicate other settings, such as the LinkGlossary that automatically links text to URLs, plus the User Dictionary. Sync won’t work on this folder.