Re: st: Can we port Stata windowing and graphics preferences between computers?

[Roger Newson <r.newson@imperial.ac.uk>]

Thanks to Eric and Tim for these suggestions. I looked in my Windows 
registry using -regedit.exe-, and found, in the Stata 11 tree, what 
looked like multiple entries for my current preferences set. So, it 
appears that, under Windows, the preferences are indeed stored in the 
Registry, as Tim sugggested. And, as Tim also pointed out, it is not a 
good idea to modify the Windows registry, unless you are 100% certain of 
what you are doing. I personally only do this to port my TextPad 
settings, and even this was frowned upon when I admitted this to our IT 
support supremo some years ago. So it is probably best for most Stata 
users under Windows to keep on setting our windowing preferences 
manually, although Stata users under MacOS seem to have a sensible 
system and do not have to do this.

This is presumably the fault of Microsoft, and not of StataCorp. I knew 
the Windows registry was bad news when it was introduced in Windows 95. 
I preferred the more user-friendly .ini files system that we had under 
Windows 3x. In general, we have to expect any Microsoft upgrade to be a 
partial downgrade.

Best wishes

Roger


On 12/03/2010 06:04, Tim wrote:
> I think the preferences are stored in the Windows registry.
>
> So you should be able run regedit, find the Stata entries (probably
> under hkey_current_user) and export them. Then you can import them on
> another computer.
>
> Standard warning about DO NOT MESS WITH THE WINDOWS REGISTRY applies. I
> don't know if there are machine specific entries that will cause
> problems if imported to another machine. If I were to approach this
> myself, I would try to identify and export the minimum I need. In
> practice, I only have 2 or 3 changes from the default, so I would just
> redo these changes on the new installation.
>
> Tim
>
> Roger Newson wrote:
> > Thanks to Eric for these suggestions.
> >
> > Unfortunately, at least on my Windows version of Stata, the File menu
> > contains nothing about saving preferences, only about saving (and
> > importing) data. And the Edit menu has an option "Preferences", which
> > has sub-options about loading, saving and deleting preferences, but
> > nothing about any files that they might be loaded from or saved to. And
> > the help for -window manage prefs- also contains a lot about loading and
> > saving preference sets, but not much about what files they might be
> > loaded or saved to. Presumably, they must be saved somewhere, but I have
> > not yet managed to find anything that looks like it might be one of
> > them, either in the sub-folders of the Stata11 program folder, or in the
> > various "Documents and Settings" folders that we have under Windows. I
> > don't know if it is different under MacOS, or if the ".rc" files that
> > Eric mentions are a clue. I will keep on looking.
> >
> > On 11/03/2010 20:55, Eric Booth wrote:
> > > >
> > >
> > > I've never tried this, so this is just a guess, but can you not just
> > > save your preferences from the "File" menu (in Mac OS X it creates a
> > > ".rc" file), locate that file and copy to a new machine, and then
> > > use/open the file from the same menu?  I've used it to change
> > > windowing preferences when switching my laptop from being plugged into
> > > an external monitor to the classroom podium projector, but I've never
> > > tried it across multiple machines or platforms.
> > >
> > > If you are looking for a command line solution, you can use the
> > > -window manage prefs- command (type "help window manage prefs") to
> > > load and save preferences; so you could put that command in your
> > > do-file or your profile.do file.
> > >
> > > ~ Eric
> > > __
> > > Eric A. Booth
> > > Public Policy Research Institute
> > > Texas A&M University
> > > ebooth@ppri.tamu.edu
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mar 11, 2010, at 1:50 PM, Roger Newson wrote:
> > >
> > > > Is there any way that Stata users can save windowing, font and
> > > > graphics preferences in such a way as to be portable between
> > > > different computers? (Or at least between different computers sharing
> > > > the same operating environment?)
> > > >
> > > > I ask because my hard disk failed without warning last Friday.
> > > > Fortunately, I managed to re-install my Stata (Version 11, release
> > > > date 09 March 2010, under Windows XP, with over 60 user-defined
> > > > packages) on a temporary PC without much trouble, and do not expect
> > > > to have much trouble porting everything back to my old PC when a new
> > > > hard drive is installed. However, it would be even better if I could
> > > > save my preferences to a server and load them again, without any
> > > > manual tweaking.
> > > >
> > > > I like the new standard preference sets for presentations, shipped
> > > > with Stata 11, which are pre-optimized with large fonts for
> > > > visibility to people with poor eyesight at the back of the hall.
> > > > However, ideally, I would like also to be able to define an equally
> > > > automatic preference set, with small fonts, for my own daily use, and
> > > > not to have to reconstruct it when I move to a new PC.
> > > >
> > > > Best wishes
> > > >
> > > > Roger
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Roger B Newson BSc MSc DPhil
> > > > Lecturer in Medical Statistics
> > > > Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group
> > > > National Heart and Lung Institute
> > > > Imperial College London
> > > > Royal Brompton Campus
> > > > Room 33, Emmanuel Kaye Building
> > > > 1B Manresa Road
> > > > London SW3 6LR
> > > > UNITED KINGDOM
> > > > Tel: +44 (0)20 7352 8121 ext 3381
> > > > Fax: +44 (0)20 7351 8322
> > > > Email: r.newson@imperial.ac.uk
> > > > Web page: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/nhli/r.newson/
> > > > Departmental Web page:
> > > > http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/divisions/nhli/respiration/popgenetics/reph/
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Opinions expressed are those of the author, not of the institution.
> > > > *
> > > > *   For searches and help try:
> > > > *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> > > > *   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> > > > *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > *
> > > *   For searches and help try:
> > > *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> > > *   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> > > *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
> *
> *   For searches and help try:
> *   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
> *   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> *   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/


--
Roger B Newson BSc MSc DPhil
Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group
National Heart and Lung Institute
Imperial College London
Royal Brompton Campus
Room 33, Emmanuel Kaye Building
1B Manresa Road
London SW3 6LR
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0)20 7352 8121 ext 3381
Fax: +44 (0)20 7351 8322
Email: r.newson@imperial.ac.uk
Web page: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/nhli/r.newson/
Departmental Web page:
http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/divisions/nhli/respiration/popgenetics/reph/

Opinions expressed are those of the author, not of the institution.
*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/