Does AE only update SkyrimSE.exe ?

[airnox]

I am not able to copy my whole game folder atm due to lack of space on my portable hard disk or on my SSD. 

Is making a back up of the 2 .exe files enough? SkyrimSE and SkyrimSElauncher 

Or does AE overwrite some other things too? 

[Just Don't]

Skyrimse.exe and binkw64.dll

 

AE will change a lot of other files, but as long as you have the 1.5.97 executable and that dll (AE replaces it with a binkw2 or something like that) you'll be fine.

[airnox]

Alright