I've decided to upgrade my laptop on a regular basis and one of my main concerns is recreating my entire Windows 7 environment every time I do this. I'm talking toolbar positions, login settings, start menu items, applications and all their customizations... everything but my drivers. It literally takes weeks to fully recreate my working environment, not to mention the risk of user error or just simply forgetting "how I liked it."

I'm assuming I won't find something as painless as Apple's Migration Assistant for Windows, but maybe there's something out there that can at least package up your apps and their settings? Bonus points if you can point it to your personal files, too - whatever's the quickest way to get from one machine to the next.

I intend to install Windows fresh to remove bloatware on every machine that I buy, then selectively install the drivers I need. Something that accommodates loading my old apps into this newly prepared environment would be ideal.

One random point of concern is in regard to application settings that refer to old hardware. I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about this. If you have any thoughts, feel free to share.

Thanks for your help!