saving system preferences before clean install

[remobot]

is there a way to save the user settings prior to doing a clean install of OS X ? i am not worried about backing up files or additional software that has been installed, just the user's system preferences that you manually set up throughout the use of your machine. and if this is possible, how do you go about reinstating the user preferences after the install is completed ?

i'm trying to decide if it's worth it for me to do the install as i have plenty of storage space left, but it would be nice to take care of this now rather than later. i've read through the install steps on the forum and did not see anything in regards to this issue. if anyone can help i would appreciate it.

thanks.

 

[justit]

User and system preferences are mostly stored in Library/Preferences but can also be found for applications in app support folders (again both on system and user). So it's a bit hairy.

My suggestion is to do a time machine backup. Do the clean install, then on the new install select the time machine but only select the minimum (no apps, no documents) and it will install your prefs. Then use Disk Utility to fix permissions.

Not sure how far you want to go. I use 1password and would export all passwords as well. The same for your browser's prefs.

 

[AIRniloc]

or you could use the 'sync' feature in mobile me...save all of your preferences to the 'cloud'...although i'm not 100% that this would save application preferences as well