Hi Alex B and hit_ny,
Thanks for your replies both of you. That helps a lot - both the info and the reassurance nothing terrible will happen.
hit_ny, yes I'd seen that thread - that was part of the confusion (the query down the bottom about whether - I assume - the backup and restore process would work).
(Partly for anyone finding this thread later) - I've done the export-reimport registry settings thing, then the restore an old MC12 backup. Nothing bad happened, and some settings seem to have copied across. I'm running both copies at the moment (also with no problems - two sets of library files but both looking at the same actual music files), so I'll just open both versions' options screens and copy things over by hand.
Looks like its just the auto-import folders (unfortunately a dozen or so, all with custom settings) and view columns to do, though, that this has speeded things up.
One thing I wondered though:
If you are just evaluating MC13 you might want to disable file tagging in "Options > General > Update tags when file info changes". MC13 doesn't corrupt the tags, but some tag field mappings have changed (in my opinion to better) and not all of the changed tags are compatible with MC12.
Do either of you know where I could find out about this? I couldn't see anything searching the boards. Or should I start a new thread and try and get someone official's attention - and yes, spot the obsessive person getting twitchy about libraries getting tampered with
Thanks again for your help, it makes a difference knowing other people haven't had problems with this kind of thing.
Cheers
Jamie