This article is also useful if you wish to copy your settings from one installation of Opera to another. When doing this, you should replace the corresponding folders and/or files in your new installation with the old ones. Always make sure Opera is closed while copying these files or foldersIt is recommended that you backup your files every now and then, both for Opera and for other software on your computer. This is a list of Opera files you might want to consider taking a backup of.

If you chose to "Use separate settings for each user" when installing Opera 7, all settings are kept separate for each user on systems that support this. In Windows 2000 and XP, this directory is:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Opera

If your system does not support multiple users or you chose to not install Opera with separate user settings, all files and directories are located in the profile directory, which is a sub-directory of your Opera installation directory.

You can also find out where Opera stores your settings by going to the Help > About Opera menu.

The file "opera6.ini" (see Help > About Opera for the correct location) contains your general Opera settings, such as cache and plug-in information. It is not recommended that you copy this file from a computer to another, as it contains a lot of paths that may be specific to your computer.

Important note for users of the e-mail client in Opera 7, M2:

Using 7.0x: If you wish to restore your mail from backup, please open the file index.ini in your Mail directory and make sure the paths defined there are correct. You can do a "search and replace" with any text editor and save the file. This is necessary for Opera to correctly locate the stored mail.

Using 7.10 or newer: It is not necessary to edit paths manually after 7.10, if you move your mail directory.