MATLAB gripe

I just got a brand new PC at work. It is a great machine (Dell Precision T7400) with a Quad Core processor X5472 (3.00 GHz, 2X6M L2, 1600) which according to a CPU benchmark site ranks #10 in the high end CPU's list (as of today - it ranked higher when I ordered it...)

The OS installed is 32bit WinXP SP3 and our IT department does all SW installations except technical computing SW. That means that among other SW packages I install MATLAB (latest version 2008b is available on our SW depot). My problem is that after installation I have to spend an additional 30-45 minutes setting up all the paths and preferences on the new PC so I get the exact same environment I had on the old PC.

Considering that I do that for my laptop, home desktop, sometimes twice a year per The Mathworks (TMW) release schedule (though I am not religious about that) each installation becomes an aggravation.

A simple solution would have been to offer customers the option of exporting all settings to some file that can be imported to another computer with a compatible release (or compatible features). Seems like a no-brainer!

I can only wish...