ReinstallSafe v1.0.0

Version: 1.0.0
Date: July 7, 2026
Platform: Windows 10 / Windows 11

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ReinstallSafe is a free Windows backup and restore assistant for before and after reinstalling Windows. Save your files, browser profiles, Wi‑Fi, apps list, and settings to an external drive — then restore them on a clean install.

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🐛 Bug Fixes

• 📋 Manifest Load (Critical): Fixed BackupManifest.load() being unreachable (nested inside a helper) — restore, backup verification, and restore-page manifest preview now work correctly
• 🌐 Browser Restore Path: Saves the actual backed-up profile path in browser_profile_paths; restore uses that path when valid, otherwise falls back to the current install (fixes Opera/Tor Roaming vs Local mismatch and new Windows user paths)
• ⏹️ Restore Cancel: Cancelled restores no longer show “Restore complete”; RestoreWorker emits a dedicated cancelled signal; robocopy and post-category cancel checks stop restore reliably
• ⏹️ Cancel Responsiveness: Background thread kills silent subprocesses (reg, winget, netsh) on cancel; registry, Wi‑Fi, game, and email restore loops stop mid-category; closing the app during backup/restore prompts to cancel first
• ⚙️ Settings → Backup Sync: Default backup destination from Settings now appears on the Backup page immediately (was only read once at startup)
• 🖼️ Exe Icon: Runtime window icon works in PyInstaller builds (assets/icon.ico bundled via --add-data)
• 📊 Backup Progress: User-file steps skipped when a folder is missing still advance the progress bar; browser backup shows activity during winget/registry steps
• ❌ Cancel Backup: No false “Backup complete” toast when the user cancels
• 🔔 Toast Shutdown: Removed fragile destroyed signal chain that could crash on exit
• 💾 Backup Destination: Path normalization fixes drive-relative paths like D: → D:\ so backups don’t land on C: by mistake; warning when destination is on the system drive
• 🌐 Chrome Beta & Browsers: Chrome Beta and 60+ other browsers included in detection and backup grid
• 📦 winget CSV Accuracy: Only marks winget auto-reinstall when the package is in the winget export JSON (no false fuzzy matches)
• 📦 winget Import Failures: Tighter failure detection; ignores “0 failed” / “no errors” lines
• 📄 Manifest Loading: Null/malformed list fields coerced safely; numeric strings parsed correctly
• 📁 Custom Folders UI: Duplicate paths (C:\Foo vs C:\Foo\) deduplicated in the picker
• 📁 Backup Page UI: Custom folders panel disabled on load when the category is unchecked (matches browsers/user files panels)

Reliability & safety (v1.0.0 audit)

• 🔒 Custom folder traversal: Tampered manifest backup_name values can no longer escape the custom-folder backup root
• 📂 Restore category detection: Restore page enables categories from manifest data, not empty pre-created backup folders
• 🌐 Browser restore picker: Choose which backed-up browser profiles to restore; empty browser selection blocked on backup
• ⚠️ Partial failures visible: AppData, fonts, games, and email robocopy failures mark categories partial and add manifest warnings
• ⏱️ Robocopy timeout: 12-hour default timeout; cancel/timeout kills the full process tree (taskkill /T /F)
• 📊 Restore file counts: Overwrite restores no longer report 0 copied files when destination count did not increase
• 📁 Relative backup paths: Relative destinations resolve under the user home directory, not the current working directory
• 📶 Wi‑Fi export: Quoted netsh paths; explicit WIFI_PASSWORDS_ARE_CLEARTEXT.txt warning in backup folder
• 🖨️ Printer backup: Respects cooperative cancel during PowerShell enumeration
• 🔧 Driver export/import: Partial pnputil output kept with warnings instead of whole-category fatal failure
• 📋 Restore UI feedback: Warning dialog when restore report has warnings; cancelled restore shows partial report path in a dialog
• 📍 Backup path note: Restore summary warns when selected folder differs from manifest backup_path
• 📦 winget detection: Broader localized failure detection; improved list parsing; 32-bit registry hive fallback
• 🔤 Subprocess encoding: Uses system preferred encoding instead of hard-coded OEM
• 🔤 Font registry labels: OTF/TTC fonts registered with correct OpenType / TrueType Collection labels
• 📈 Robocopy progress: Sub-progress advances on output activity, less dependent on English "New File" lines
• 📝 Session log: Backup writes logs/backup_session_summary.txt
• 📜 Logs page: In-memory log export list capped at 5000 lines (matches console block count)
• 🪟 Platform guard: App exits cleanly on non-Windows instead of crashing mid-import
• ✅ Tests & CI: 12 unit tests in tests/; GitHub Actions workflow on Windows

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✨ New Features & Optimizations

💾 Core Backup & Restore

• 14 backup categories: user files, custom folders, browser profiles, installed apps (winget + registry), AppData (Roaming), drivers, Wi‑Fi, fonts, registry, printers list, Windows settings, game saves, email profiles
• 12 restore categories with Safe, Full, and Custom restore modes
• Safe Restore default: user files, custom folders, browsers, Wi‑Fi, fonts (skips risky registry / AppData / drivers)
• backup_manifest.json: records PC name, Windows version, selected categories, browser list, custom folder paths, file counts, warnings, and errors
• Backup verification: sanity-check backup folder against manifest
• Cooperative cancel: stop backup or restore without a false “complete” status
• Progress tracking: step-based progress bar with robocopy sub-progress
• TEMP redirect: backup workspace uses <backup>/.workspace/tmp instead of filling C: temp

📂 User Files & Custom Folders

• User folder picker: choose Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, Music individually
• Custom folders: add arbitrary paths; original paths saved in manifest and folder_map.json
• Custom folder restore: files copied back to original locations (e.g. D:\Projects)

🌐 Browsers

• 65+ browser definitions: Chrome (stable, Beta, Dev, Canary), Edge channels, Brave, Firefox family, Opera variants, Chromium forks, security browsers, and more
• Automatic detection: only installed browsers shown as “Detected”
• Cache excludes: skips Cache, GPUCache, Service Worker, etc. for faster backups
• Close-browser prompts on backup and restore

📦 Apps, System & Settings

• Full software inventory CSV: registry (all uninstall hives) + Microsoft Store/UWP apps — install directory, website links, uninstall command, and RestoreMethod (winget auto-reinstall, manual reinstall, etc.)
• winget export/import for supported app reinstall after clean Windows
• Registry app inventory CSV when winget is unavailable
• Driver export/import via pnputil
• Wi‑Fi profile export/import via netsh (home networks)
• User font backup/restore with registry registration
• Safe HKCU registry export/import
• Windows settings restore: personalization .reg files (taskbar, mouse, keyboard, desktop)
• Game saves: Saved Games and Documents\My Games
• Email: Thunderbird profiles and Outlook PST copy
• Printers: name list (reference only, no auto-restore)

🎨 UI & Experience

• Vault Green theme: cream paper backgrounds, deep forest green accent (#1e5d43), soft cards, no gradients
• Four pages: Backup, Restore, Logs, Settings
• Collapsible sidebar with floating toggle on the content border
• Custom hand-drawn nav icons (backup, restore, logs, settings)
• Selectable category cards, browser grid, user-folder grid, custom folder list
• Preflight dialogs: honest notes before backup/restore (what will and won’t restore)
• Toast notifications and live mini console on Backup/Restore pages
• Logs page with rotating file log

⚙️ Settings & Packaging

• Default backup destination in Settings — browse auto-saves; syncs to Backup page via QSettings
• System diagnostics: admin, winget, robocopy availability badges
• App icon: assets/icon.ico (Vault Green backup arrow tile)
• PyInstaller build: uv run build.py → dist/ReinstallSafe.exe with bundled theme and icon
• Honest category subtitles: restore expectations shown on each card (extensions OK, logins need sync, etc.)
• GitHub Actions release: Windows workflow runs unit tests, builds the exe, and publishes on version tags

📚 Documentation

• README.md: user guide, pre-reinstall checklist, FAQ, restore tables
• AGENT.md: codebase architecture guide for developers and LLM agents

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⚠️ Known Limitations

• Not a full disk/system image — cannot clone Windows itself
• Browser saved passwords and cookies may not survive a clean install (Windows DPAPI) — use browser sync
• winget reinstalls only a subset of installed software
• AppData backup is Roaming only — not %LOCALAPPDATA%
• Printers: names only — no driver/port restore
• Game saves: two standard folders — not Steam/Epic/Xbox launchers
• Outlook OST files are backed up but often useless after a clean Windows install
• Thunderbird restore merges into an existing profile folder rather than creating an isolated profile
• Restore may finish with warnings (partial robocopy, driver, or winget failures) — check logs/restore_report_*.txt

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🔗 Links

• Repository
• Download Release
• Report an Issue

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Made with ❤️ for everyone reinstalling Windows

📥 Download

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