I've got a bunch (approximately 15) of peripheral utility programs on my pc
hard drive running WinME (examples: AVG, spybot, adaware PP viewer, ErrorClean, etc). I want to take WinME off my pc and put Win2000 on
the hard drive for my primary OS.

I don't want to have to download all my peripherals, as some are "one shot"
paid for ones, and I'd have to write the makers and get another download
access.

So, if I uninstall these little rascals, can I then copy them to my USB
external hard drive and ultimately bring them back to my Win2000 OS pc, with
the understanding I'll have to reinstall each???

I know I can't transfer the installed programs, but hope I can do that with
uninstalled ones.

You should check to see that the version of the program that you have installed on WinME will work when installed on Windows 2000. If not, you will probably have to acquire a Windows 2000 compatible version, if there is one available.

You will have to reinstall each application on the upgraded operating system from the application's installer program. If you don't have the the original installer program, you will have to acquire a copy. If you originally installed the application from an installer program that was saved to your hard drive then this should work if the installer program is on an external hard drive. If you installed the program from an installation CD or from a remote server, you will probably have to do this again.

At the time of installation/startup, you may have to (depending on the application) enter registration information.

Check with each application's developer for details.

Good. Thanks. I now think I can manage this project.