Believe me, I'll be GOOGLING like crazy all morning and searching more around the Forum.  But I'd still like a word of advice on this from you guys.
 
Brand new computer.  Backed up the old one on a 3Tb drive using "Backup" and put my C drive program files--including Desktop, and some other files (NOT any system files--into a C folder, and put my other hard drives in their entirety into D folder, E folder, etc.
 
Now it's time to transfer.  Can't I just select all of the contents of D folder and "Copy" to the new D drive?  Or is "Restore" a better option for some reason.
 
It's the new solid state C drive I'm worried about--with Cakewalk, Melodyne, all of my crucial music programs on there.  Although I'll research first, my thought was to Copy (or restore) all of those files to the new C drive first (which already has Windows 10 on it), understanding that I may not be able to run them (because of Registry complications?) and THEN as I find out that various programs don't run, REINSTALL them one by one as I discover this.
 
Have I got this right?
 
Thanks in advance.

What I would do in your case is re-install all programs like Sonar etc, using the latest version of the Command Center. And other software using their latest installers. This typically puts stuff in C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files (x86)
 
After having done your basic installations, you could append the created directories C:\Cakewalk Content and C:\Cakewalk Projects with additional material that you take from your backup of the old pc.
 
Some material may also be stored in C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk and in Documents\Cakewalk. Same procedure here, first check what is newly installed and then append with 'old' stuff that is missing.
 
Some of your VST's (in my case stored in C:\Program Files\vstplugins64bit and C:\Program Files (x86)\vstplugins32bit maybe just copied and pasted from the backup, but best is wherever there is an install procedure, first do that
 
Hope this helps
 
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I would think the foolproof method would be to reinstall every application. Otherwise the resigstry entries for each application will not be present.

+1 for what PeteL said.  In many (most) cases you can't just move programs, they must be "installed" using the installer for the program. VST's the same way.  You may get away with just copying some, but its iffy.

I just replaced my motherboard, processor and ram and installed a new SSD as my C drive.
 
I used the clone drive tool from Acronis to copy my old C drive to the new SSD before swapping the hardware out.
 
To my surprise, the computer booted fine and ran perfectly. 
 
The only issue that I had was spending some time with Microsoft tech support authorizing my Windows 10 licence with the new hardware.
Have your authorization code ready.
They remoted into my PC and I'm good to go.
I also had to reauthorize some VSTs also. Painless
 
It's worth a try. The worst that can happen is that you'll have to do a clean install.
 
 

Thanks so much guys.  I'll reinstall the important stuff first then.