Yup, no problem doing this, I've used it for quick installs, you can always tweak settings afterwards.
so have you restored the settings also on a different OS (e.g., from WinXP to W7)?
No, I have done it here on Win7 64Bit and 32Bit.
In theory this might not work, as the avast5.ini (and other avast shield .ini files) is in a different location in XP and Vista or win7 (docs&settings Vs ProgramData folder).
I don't know exactly what is stored in the exported data file or how smart the actual Import function is. If it would place any .ini file in the correct folder location. If the avast .ini files were stored in the exported settings, then the Import function could just replace the existing ones with the exported ones. But there is a lot of ifs in there.
Yes, once tweaked for that system, export the settings for it and give the export file a unique name.
mmmh... why a unique name?
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If you haven't seen the name format they look the same, e.g. have a date stamp style name, the idea of a unique name relates to the content of the export in conjunction with that datestamp, e.g. NoShields-DateStamp.txt. So when you come to use it you know that there are no shield settings exported in this export.