My old computer is nearly worn out, it's slow and needs to be replaced. I will be buying a new computer in a couple months. My old computer (PC) has P7 installed. I have spent a great deal of time and effort installing figures and content into P7. When I get my new computer I will be installing P8. My question is this, (It may have been answered somwhere on this forum, but I cannot locate it) Can I make a copy of my old runtime folder from P7 and transfer it into the new runtime on P8 or do I have to reinstall everything again, which would be very labor intensive?
Thank You

Rigstitch

 I keep my entire Poser7 and Poser8 runtime folders backed up all the time.. So if I use a new computer I just move the entire thing over to the new computer and add the runtime. You can easily add your Poser 7 runtime folder in Poser 8. :)  No reinstall needed.

I've moved my P5 (and then P6) Runtimes numerous times without problems. 

To get Poser 7 onto your new computer, just copy over the Poser directory, then if you want to recreate the shortcuts and file associations, reinstall SR3 and point it to that location.  Be sure to tell it to back up your preferences.

You can then install Poser 8, to it's own directory and add the Poser 7 runtime to the Library as an external runtime.

Be sure to install them outside of the c:Program Files hierarchy-install them in, say, c:poser, as this will prevent headaches with Windows' security scheme.

Don't overwrite the new runtime with the old.  There are script configurations which will totally become useless if you do that.  The recommendation would be to transfer the P7 runtime to the new computer and link it to P8 as an external so you may have access to your content.  Afterwards, either reinstall your python scripts into P8, or, as I have read in previous posts, copy the P8 Python folder to the P7, overwriting that folder, then copy it back to the P8 runtime.

You might also consider putting your copied runtime onto an external HDD that you can use to move content between computers and Poser versions. It will be useful if you find yourself needing to switch often.

Thank you all for your rapid replies. I will keep these suggestions close by. I am happy that I will not have to reinstall everything.

hborre is definitely correct don't overwrite the runtime make a separate one and link it in the library.

if you are installing under c:programs, you need to change permissions to write to that directory if you're using vista.  it's easy. 
in the explorer pane, right click on the folder you'll be putting the files into.  then click security, then change the permissions.  you should give full control there. 
the idea of the external drive sounds the best though.
**
**

I am now ready to transfer my old runtime to my new computer and new Poser. It took longer then I expected to get my new system. I have an HP 6 core extreme, 64bit I have Poser Pro 2010 installed. I have saved the runtime from my Poser 7 to an external drive for transfer. Opening up the new Poser Pro 2010 I see the runtime and a download folder, that has an empty runtime folder in it. I seem to have conflicting advice here so I want to choose the best of what to do and avoid any potentual problems. Some say no problem transfering into the new runtime and others say to have the old runtime in a seperate folder. Does the download folder qualify? or Can the old runtime be drop into the new one and not overwrite it? I appreciate the advice here as I am a senior and an artist, learning new technologies as best I can. But at my age (I say that with a bit of a smile) My brain matter is not as sharp as it was. I need all the guidence I can get. Thank you  Ribitch

To avoid any potential problems merging runtimes from vastly different versions, I would use the P7 as an external runtime.  The available download folder within the Poser folder could suffice, but many experienced users bypass that for more customly specialized and organized folders.  The only drawback would be utilizing any python script originially installed into your P7.  As described above, copy your PP2010 python folder to the P7 runtime, then copy it back to PP2010.  But remember to backup those files first just in case your app Python Script misbehaves.

I am now ready to transfer my old runtime to my new computer and new Poser. It took longer then I expected to get my new system. I have an HP 6 core extreme, 64bit I have Poser Pro 2010 installed. I have saved the runtime from my Poser 7 to an external drive for transfer. Opening up the new Poser Pro 2010 I see the runtime and a download folder, that has an empty runtime folder in it. I seem to have conflicting advice here so I want to choose the best of what to do and avoid any potentual problems. Some say no problem transfering into the new runtime and others say to have the old runtime in a seperate folder. Does the download folder qualify? or Can the old runtime be drop into the new one and not overwrite it? I appreciate the advice here as I am a senior and an artist, learning new technologies as best I can. But at my age (I say that with a bit of a smile) My brain matter is not as sharp as it was. I need all the guidence I can get. Thank you  Ribitch

Thank You, everyone for the input. I successfully transfered my old runtime and everthing works fine. I had trouble finding one texture map, but since I recorded locations of all my old content in the old runtime into a doc file as I installed themthe first time, it was not too difficult to locate the missing file.

Sorry I'm late to the game, but I want to mention that there are copy programs out there that work way better than Windows for copying large amounts of data.  They can utilize multiple cores and more ram, and are faster and more stable.  Personally I am using Teracopy, since I like to keep my runtime backed up since it takes so long to reinstall everything.  But there are other free ones out there also.  Just wanted to share the info.