Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

I am considering replacing my old deskside machine.

Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files
work well?

In the past I was able simply to restore an image of the entire old
machine on the new one. That's worked, but I'd prefer not to do it
because I suspect the Windows 10 system has grown a little crufty.

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On 2019-10-04 11:00, Jason wrote:
I am considering replacing my old deskside machine.

Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files
work well?

In the past I was able simply to restore an image of the entire old
machine on the new one. That's worked, but I'd prefer not to do it
because I suspect the Windows 10 system has grown a little crufty.


LapLink PCMover has been reliable in the past for me. I've used it to
move data from XP to Vista, Vista to 7, Vista to 8, Vista to 10, and 7
to 10. It moves apps, having first built a list of apps it should move
which you can override if you want but it's not usually a good idea to
do so. (Typically it leaves off hardware specific apps such as the vast
number of 'helper' apps shipping with most machines from HP, Dell, Asus,
etc. and which I normally kill first thing anyway.) It moves your
settings, including settings for things like web browsers. And, of
course, it moves your data, and not just the data in your user folders.
And it's cheap.

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On 04/10/2019 16:00, Jason wrote:
I am considering replacing my old deskside machine.

Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files
work well?



NO





--
With over 1,000,000 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On 2019-10-04 14:23, 😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
On 04/10/2019 16:00, Jason wrote:
I am considering replacing my old deskside machine.

Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files
work well?



NO

Experience with LapLink PCMover over the course of more than a decade
indicates otherwise. Microsoft includes tools which will move settings
and files, but not applications. PCMover moves applications and does it
properly, updating the registry correctly and installing without DRM
problems. This includes installing items such as MS Office and Adobe
Creative Cloud and Creative Suite.

One wonders why you feel that PCMover and similar tools do not work,
particularly when experience over more than a decade and over multiple
machines with multiple versions of Windows says that PCMover does work.
Could you please elucidate further?

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On Fri, 4 Oct 2019 11:00:29 -0400, Jason
wrote:

I am considering replacing my old deskside machine.

Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files
work well?


Settings and files should be no problem. Moving files does not even
need a special tool to move them. Just copy the files to external
media, then copy from the external media to the new computer.

Moving programs is a different matter. I've tried several
program-moving programs over the year, and they all failed on moving
some programs.

But you could try one. Depending on what programs you have to move, it
might work better for you than it did for me. And worst case, if it
fails on only some, you could reinstall just those programs rather
than all.

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

In article ,
says...
And worst case, if it
fails on only some, you could reinstall just those programs rather
than all.
That would be satisfactory. I'd just like to avoid having to move
everything. Did you use a tool to uncover license information before the
move?

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On Fri, 04 Oct 2019 14:04:52 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:

Moving files does not even
need a special tool to move them. Just copy the files to external
media, then copy from the external media to the new computer.

Moving programs is a different matter. I've tried several
program-moving programs over the year, and they all failed on moving
some programs.

I will add that we all have experience with this process for decades.

Copying files from old to new is so trivial it won't be discussed.
The problem, of course, is all based on programs - and settings.

Lately, drivers, while in the past problematic, aren't usually an issue.
Some suggest doubledriver, driverbackup, & drvback, but I've found them to
be of limited usefulness in that they all failed in the very cases where I
really needed a driver (e.g., so-called legacy printers).

I posit that most programs simply should be re-installed & reset.
Many people use archival solutions such as macrium reflect, but I find that
approach so worthless as to not deserve mention in a serious discussion.

The real effort, I suggest, should be in setting up the new computer such
that the data you care about is kept in a safe place at all times, e.g.,
c:\data\{put stuff you care about here - in a reasonable hierarchy for you}

Where you put that data is not important, so choose any location you like:
c:\users\user1\data\{put all your data in a hierarchy easily archived}

The programs are generally trivial to re-install & reset.
Particularly if the owner has saved the original full offline installers.

For licenses, on this ng we have often discussed three players
o Belarc Advisor
o Magical JellyBean Finder
o ShowKey Plus

Where their results are spotty, so you likely want to use all three, where
the least useful is Magical JellyBean Finder, and the most useful is Belarc
Advisor. You can also try Sandra freeware, but it gets worse over time.

My main problem with Belarc is unrelated to this problem set, which is that
I deplore programs that are so poorly designed that they don't ask where
they should be installed.

For the _new_ installation, I suggest everyone follow a basic plan.
a. Keep stuff you care about
b. Separate from stuff you don't care about

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On 10/4/2019 11:00 AM, Jason wrote:
I am considering replacing my old deskside machine.

Do any of the programs that purport to move apps, settings and files
work well?

In the past I was able simply to restore an image of the entire old
machine on the new one. That's worked, but I'd prefer not to do it
because I suspect the Windows 10 system has grown a little crufty.

Just copy the image over to the new machine, and then run the Windows 10
In-Place Upgrade Installation procedure. That's renew the Windows 10
image to a fresh new image, without getting rid of programs and
settings. It's as good as a fresh new install of Windows.

Yousuf Khan

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On Sun, 6 Oct 2019 11:13:19 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Just copy the image over to the new machine, and then run the Windows 10
In-Place Upgrade Installation procedure. That's renew the Windows 10
image to a fresh new image, without getting rid of programs and
settings. It's as good as a fresh new install of Windows.

Does that really work?

More specifically, if the old image was "crufty" (for reasons unknown
almost always, so you have no idea where crufty is hiding)...

Does the "In-Place Upgrade Installation Procedure" really work?

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On 10/6/2019 12:34 PM, Arlen _G_ Holder wrote:
On Sun, 6 Oct 2019 11:13:19 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Just copy the image over to the new machine, and then run the Windows 10
In-Place Upgrade Installation procedure. That's renew the Windows 10
image to a fresh new image, without getting rid of programs and
settings. It's as good as a fresh new install of Windows.

Does that really work?

More specifically, if the old image was "crufty" (for reasons unknown
almost always, so you have no idea where crufty is hiding)...

Does the "In-Place Upgrade Installation Procedure" really work?

Haven't found a situation where it doesn't work as well as a complete
reinstall. However, the procedure is a lot more complicated for the
Windows Installer program to handle, as it backs up a lot of settings
and info before it proceeds to reinstall Windows, so it might actually
take longer than a simple Windows fresh install. It also creates a
backup of the original Windows directory in a folder called Windows.old.
If any kind of failure occurs during the install, then it aborts
everything and restores the original back from Windows.old. So you may
get an installation failure, but you'll just be back to where you
started originally. At that point, if you're still intent on
reinstalling Windows, then you may decide to go with a fresh install
instead. But I always try In-Place Upgrade first.

As for "crufty" Windows, most of that is due to programs installing
custom Windows DLL's. Due to this, Windows keeps many backups of various
versions of DLL's, for each program that might want its own version. An
In-Place Install clears away older unnecessary DLL's, and then programs
can begin requesting custom versions again as necessary, and the process
of heading towards cruftiness starts all over again. But at least it
starts from a slimmer base again.

Yousuf Khan

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

"Arlen _G_ Holder" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 6 Oct 2019 11:13:19 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Just copy the image over to the new machine, and then run the Windows 10
In-Place Upgrade Installation procedure. That's renew the Windows 10
image to a fresh new image, without getting rid of programs and
settings. It's as good as a fresh new install of Windows.

Does that really work?

More specifically, if the old image was "crufty" (for reasons unknown
almost always, so you have no idea where crufty is hiding)...

Does the "In-Place Upgrade Installation Procedure" really work?

I agree completely with Yousuf; I've used it a few times on different PCs.

Here's a link to an in-depth description of how to do it:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html
--

SC Tom

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

In article , says...
I agree completely with Yousuf; I've used it a few times on different PCs.

Same here, but it's been a LONG time since I last tried it.
Yousef's recommendation of a Windows update install is something I have
NOT tried, so thanks Yousef for the suggestion.

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

On Mon, 7 Oct 2019 12:48:33 -0400, Jason wrote:

Yousef's recommendation of a Windows update install is something I have
NOT tried, so thanks Yousef for the sugge

I have one windows 10 pro that fails to reboot about 1 in 10 times, and I
have another windows 10 install where the winxp-style accordion cascade
menu pinned to the taskbar takes about 20 seconds to populate for some
strange reason ...

Neither of which is enough "cruftiness" to warrant a full re-install...

So, I may try this Windows 10 update in place process, after all.

Thanks for the words of support for Yousef's recommendation.

Looks like I have some reading to do, first...
o How to perform an In-place Upgrade with Windows 10 Step-by-Step Guide
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/how-to-perform-an-in-place-upgrade-with-windows-10/7f0b236e-3c6c-4913-9691-c4baa2a6190a

o How to repair Windows 10 with in-place upgrade.
https://www.wintips.org/repair-windows-10-with-in-place-upgrade/

o How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

o Perform an in-place upgrade to Windows 10 using Configuration Manager
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/upgrade/upgrade-to-windows-10-with-system-center-configuraton-manager

o In-Place Windows 10 upgrade for repair
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/in-place-windows-10-upgrade-for-repair/dd002c01-6ccf-402a-9e19-e52929e43066

o Windows 10 Servicing and In-Place Upgrades
https://setupconfigmgr.com/windows-10-servicing-and-in-place-upgrades-in-microsoft-sccm
etc.

Transferring files, apps, settings to new PC
 

In article , bbbl67
@spammenot.yahoo.com says...
But at least it
starts from a slimmer base again.

For fun (!?) I tried this on the existing installation on the machine I
intend to replace with the new one. It took a long time, installed lots
of updates along the way, and all seems to be OK afterwards. (I didn't
keep an exact count, but the number of installed DLL's appeared to have
shrunk by a lot - so much for "cruft" as Yousef suggested would be the
case.) I will certainly give this a try before I resort to the paid
alternatives (Laplink etc.) that purport to perform the migration.
Existing apps that I've tried since operate normally after a tweak or
two to their settings.