[eschwartz]

There is no need to set the CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY variable, no user programs use the same exact path. They look for things in the following dynamic path:

%APPDATA%

Specifically, calibre will look for the config folder located at

%APPDATA%\calibre

The name and location of your

%USERPROFILE%

is completely irrelevant for these purposes.

Just move the old calibre-config folder from the old computer into the %APPDATA% folder of the new computer, which should be, on both computers, "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\"

ALL settings will transfer, except perhaps the location of your libraries. Those are hardcoded in the configuration data, calibre will be unable to find them if you have a different path, and calibre will popup a message saying it is gone and please select the new location if you have moved it. Or just re-add them manually. Or if they were located on a second hard drive, just make sure the external drive is mounted to the old drive letter (I would manually assign one on general principle).

I shall be trying to stay in desktop mode in win 8 wherever possible, and sticking with my trusty old outlook 2007 for mail/contacts/calendar. I have zero interest in the whole social media / apps / lifestyle integration think, and I prefer the good old paranoid stance of of "the less there is about me on line/ on Microsoft's servers. the safer I am from ID theft, phishing etc."

Any decent Start Menu replacement will usually come with an option to login directly to the desktop. Windows 8.1 should have that built-in... too bad they didn't do the important thing and fix the Start Menu.