FAQ: Home Cookin Backup and Installation

How do I backup my recipes?

The best way to backup your recipes is to include Home Cookin as part of a full hard drive backup. This will protect not only your recipe collection, but all of the other documents, photos, and music on your system as well. There are numerous backup applications on the market, but I have had good results with Macrium Reflect. If you prefer to backup and restore Home Cookin manually, follow these instructions:

Backup:

1. Connect a removable USB flash drive to your computer.
2. Open Home Cookin and click the Options tab.
3. Click the Backup button, then navigate to your USB flash drive.
4. Verify the destination path is correct and click OK.

Restore:

1. Open the Setup.exe file on the flash drive to reinstall Home Cookin.
2. Open the Home Cookin icon on your desktop, then click the Options tab.
3. Click the Restore button, then the Browse button.
4. Locate the Recipe860.dat file on your flash drive, then click OK.
   (Recipe34.dat for version 8.59 and earlier)

Version 7.49 and earlier

Can I move Home Cookin Recipe Software to a new computer?

Yes, you can easily move Home Cookin, your recipes, groceries, meal plans, and other data when you buy a new computer. Just follow the steps below:

1. Connect an empty USB flash drive to your old computer.
2. Open Home Cookin on your old computer and select the Options screen.
3. Click the Backup button in the file backup section.
4. When the file selector appears navigate to your flash drive. Make sure the "Destination" path is correct for your flash drive (One click to highlight the drive, Second click to select the drive as the destination).
5. Click OK and your files will be copied to your flash drive.
6. Close Home Cookin and verify the various files have been copied to the drive (Recipe860.dat, Grocery747.dat, Event860.dat, etc.).
7. Move your flash drive to your new computer.
8. Install Home Cookin on the new computer, using either the Setup.exe file on the flash drive, or the newest version from my web site: www.mountainsoftware.com/homecook/download.php
9. Open Home Cookin on your new computer and select the Options screen.
10. Click the Restore button in the file backup section, then click Browse.
11. When the file selector appears navigate to your flash drive. Select the Homecook.exe program file, or the Recipe860.dat file.
12. Click OK to restore your recipes, groceries, and other data to the new Home Cookin installation.
13. Remember to select your printer and font again before printing, as Home Cookin will still have the settings from your old computer.

To ensure the smoothest transfer, we recommend upgrading to the latest version before moving Home Cookin to your new computer.

Note: Once you are satisfied everything is working well on your new computer, be sure to uninstall Home Cookin from your old computer. It is a violation of the program license to share your registration with other users.

Where is Home Cookin Installed?

Most versions of Home Cookin install by default to C:\Program Files\ (32-bit OS) or C:\Program Files (x86)\ (64-bit OS).

The location of the user data varies by version. If you install Home Cookin to a different drive or folder, the user data is saved in the same folder as the program files.

Version 7.50 and later	Program Files: C:\Program Files\Home Cookin\ User Data: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Home Cookin\ Note: The AppData folder is normally hidden by Windows. You can access it easily by following these steps: 1. Click Windows Start button. 2. Type %localappdata% in the search/run box and press Enter. 3. Scroll down to the Home Cookin folder and open it.
Version 6.45 to 7.49	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin\
Version 5.9	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.9\
Version 5.8	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.8\
Version 5.7	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.7\
Version 5.6	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.6\
Version 5.5	Program Files: C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.5\ User Data: C:\Documents and Settings\[your login name] \My Documents\Home Cookin 5.5\
Version 5.4	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.4\
Version 5.0 to 5.3	C:\Home Cookin\
Version 4.9 and earlier	C:\Homecook\

Flash Drive Compatible - Traveling with Home Cookin Recipe Software.

If you use multiple computers, travel frequently, or have summer and winter homes, you may want to install Home Cookin to a USB flash drive. This will let you take the program with you and keep your collection up to date without having to synchronize the information on each computer.

If you are installing Home Cookin for the first time:

1. Insert your USB flash drive in your computer
2. Open the Home Cookin installer
3. Click the Browse button
4. Select your USB flash drive.
5. Proceed with the install and registration as usual.

If you have already installed Home Cookin recipe software on your computer, just copy the Home Cookin folder from your hard drive to the USB flash drive. See the back up instructions to determine where your specific version was installed.

Home Cookin can be run directly from the flash drive. It will not make any changes to the system registry or install files on the destination computer, so it is safe to use on a friends computer, a library computer, at an internet cafe, etc. However, you will need to select the printer and font each time you want to print from Home Cookin on a new computer.

How do I uninstall Home Cookin Recipe Software?

If you are experiencing problems with Home Cookin, please Email me and I will do my best to assist you. Most problems are usually easy to fix.

If the program does not meet your expectations, please send a brief email to support@mountainsoftware.com mentioning the features you are looking for. I'm always looking for ways to improve Home Cookin, and would appreciate your suggestions.

If you still wish to uninstall Home Cookin, simply use the "Uninstall a program" applet in Windows control panel ("Add or Remove Programs" on Windows XP).

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