How do I reconfigure my computer after an OS reinstall?

Every so often I am required to reinstall a standardized image on my job computer (basically a ghosting). When the process is complete I have to reinstall all my non-image software manually (development environments, non-MS browsers, assorted tools and utilities etc). Afterwards I have to manually reconfigure all settings and configurations in all programs. In some programs I can export settings for later import, but many times that's not that easy. Either way it's basically a whole days work for me to reconfigure my computer back to my preferred setup.

Is there an easier way to do it? Normally I'd use some kind of imaging, but that option is obviously out of the question. Maybe a utility or a set of programs that can assist me in this work, tracking, backup and restoring of registry settings, configurations files, software folders, user documents etc.

Edit: To clarify, the reason I just can't save an image is because the new standardized image issued by corporate IT is required in order to be able to access company assets, including the company network. So overwriting the issued image with my backup image would not accomplish anything I could not accomplish by just ignoring the new company image. Which I sometimes can, but many times can't.

Solution 1:

If you have sufficient time, and enough specific software, creating an unattended install script(guides here and here may be a good idea.

For some software you can shortcut this with ninite which allows you to download and install a subset of a selection of software - for example browsers, some dev tools and so on, and is what i use. You may also want to look at TGSP, or allmyapps amongst others, since they may have a different/more suitable set of software

windiff will allow you to check differences between sets of registry files and you can get a copy here - you can then export the difference between your modified system and the baseline system to the baseline system i believe.

On the other hand, there's an easier way - software virtualisation. I personally favour svs/svw (SU question linked, cause its a pain to find the software in question) to create a layer with all my software. Simply move the layer over to the new system and everything would be as it was. There's other options for software virtualisation, but this is the one i know that works

Solution 2:

It defeats the purpose of imaging, but you could make a registry backup, and then also copy everything in program files, Program Files (x86), appData, and any other locations that you installed software to, and just overwrite those locations on your new machine.

It would be better to make a full backup, but I am not sure that you can (if it falls under images, though it is not necessarily an image).