The first thing to do is to confirm that you have a record of all your licence keys, and any necessary media for re-installation.

If you do not have these, before you lose access to your old PC, open Easy-PC, go to [Help], [About Easy-PC] and make a note of your customer ID and the product code. Next, send an email to sales@numberone.com quoting these numbers, and asking for download links for the matching products. Note that you'll only get download links for libraries and the main program, as autorouters and other optional features are enabled from within the program from [Settings], [Optional Features]. Please only use this service if absolutely essential.

The program does not have any form of locking which requires a structured uninstallation before a fresh installation can be performed. Uninstallation is mainly a matter of security to ensure that you are not compromising your licence by passing a working copy of the software to another potential user.

Of course you will also have to transfer any design information as well, but there are other files you may not want to lose. Here’s a check list:

 1)  Design files (.sch, .pcb, .prj)
 2)  Modified or custom libraries (.ssl, .psl, .cml, .pkg)
 3)  Modified or custom technology files (.stf, .ptf)
 4)  Modified or custom colour files (.ecss, .ecs)
 5)  Modified or custom user report templates (.rft)
 6)  Job files (.epj)
 7)  Keyboard shortcut files (.key)
 8)  EDIF import map files (.map)
 9)  Text files in the program folder, 'def_ref.txt' and 'package.txt'

To find where items (2) to (5) are stored, for V17 onwards, open the program and look at [Settings], [Folders]. If in doubt, back files up anyway, as you can always compare file date, time and size with any installed on the new machine and replace if necessary. Prior to V17, it's probably easiest to search for the relevant extensions, as the information is in several diverse places within the menus.

For design files it is only necessary to save files ending in .pcb, .prj and .sch. All other files are reports which can be regenerated.

For libraries, it is only necessary to save files ending in .cml, .pkg, .psl and .ssl. .cmx, .psx and .ssx are index files which will be recreated by the program if missing. .cmp, .psy and .ssy are used for saving components and symbols outside the libraries, for instance as a backup for part completed work, and can probably be discarded. .elt files are the same, but are used for all in one transfer of components plus their symbols.

Item (7), the files are created from [Settings], [Customise], then the [Save] button on the 'Keyboard' tab, and have a .key extension. The easiest way to find the location of these is to attempt a save and look at the location offered.

Item (8) will only have changed if you have imported an EDIF netlist.

Item (9) automatically stores any new package types, or device reference letters respectively that you may have used, and are used to populate the pull down lists in the relevant locations. They are supplied empty by default.

It's also possible to recover user preferences from the registry. From Version 23 onwards, you can use the supplied Configuration Manager tool (accessed via [Help], [Support]) to help you with this, but in versions prior to V23 this is an advanced capability and should not be undertaken lightly; if this is essential, please contact the support desk for more detailed information

Configuration files (in addition to other settings) contain records of any menu, toolbar or hotkey customisation so the .key files will only act as a security backup.