I prefer checklists like this-- using keywords (e.g., "Bookmarks") instead of recipes ("backup HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\...") because the first is universal and the second can change. Keywords are harder to follow, because you have to research each step-- but you learn more and are less likely to foget things.

That said, an easy way to grab most of the user-related stuff is to just copy the Documents and Settings to your friendly neighborhood USB drive. You'll get items 2-6 (and the others have to be manually installed anyway).

Also, I would NEVER back up my system and then just restore the backup to a new box, as some people suggested. Auto-update often doesn't work, and you can spend weeks killing all the flakeys.

And it's really annoying when you learn that the drivers or registry entries that were causing BSODs are related to the joystick that broke in 2002. You never have to take it out, if you don't load it in.