New computer.

Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?
Peter

On 8/21/2016 3:18 PM, Peter Jason wrote:
Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?
Peter

That would depend on what you mean by "everything"..


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

In article ,
says...

Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?
Peter

Depends upon what you mean by "everything".

Data you created, downloads etc. are all easily copied onto a thumbdrive
and transferred to new pc.

Allmost all programs will need to be reinstalled.

Problem with the programs is 1 - what registry values did it create when
installed and 2 - what secondary files did it place in folders other
than the install folder. Usually it's to hard to even figure that stuff
out even if you have the installation log files handy. Easiest way is to
copy the install folder and ALL it's contents to the new pc and try and
run it. Note - expect most to not run. Some you get lucky and they
create that stuff anyways when they don't find it.

Anything that "adds" to Windows by "hooking" into it (e.g. MS Office,
anti-virus stuff and the like) will almost surely need to be
reinstalled.

I basically keep a saved folder on an external hard disk of the software
I know runs by just copying it. Makes life little easier for new pc. As
an example, daughter just brought home a new to her from work pc, (Dell
Optiplex - I7 with 8Gb ram, Win7 Pro with key for $100 Can.). It was
bare bones fresh install. I easily copied over to it old versions of
PaintShop Pro (images), old WinAmp (mp3's) and AudioGrabber (rip music
cds) plus a pile of utilities. Only extra is telling software what file
extensions to "grab" for itself via programs Options menu. Usually
something you do anyway. I had to install Office and Nero fresh.

On 08/21/2016 08:12 PM, pjp wrote:
In article ,
says...

Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?
Peter

Depends upon what you mean by "everything".

Data you created, downloads etc. are all easily copied onto a thumbdrive
and transferred to new pc.

Allmost all programs will need to be reinstalled.

Problem with the programs is 1 - what registry values did it create when
installed and 2 - what secondary files did it place in folders other
than the install folder. Usually it's to hard to even figure that stuff
out even if you have the installation log files handy. Easiest way is to
copy the install folder and ALL it's contents to the new pc and try and
run it. Note - expect most to not run. Some you get lucky and they
create that stuff anyways when they don't find it.

Anything that "adds" to Windows by "hooking" into it (e.g. MS Office,
anti-virus stuff and the like) will almost surely need to be
reinstalled.

I basically keep a saved folder on an external hard disk of the software
I know runs by just copying it. Makes life little easier for new pc. As
an example, daughter just brought home a new to her from work pc, (Dell
Optiplex - I7 with 8Gb ram, Win7 Pro with key for $100 Can.). It was
bare bones fresh install. I easily copied over to it old versions of
PaintShop Pro (images), old WinAmp (mp3's) and AudioGrabber (rip music
cds) plus a pile of utilities. Only extra is telling software what file
extensions to "grab" for itself via programs Options menu. Usually
something you do anyway. I had to install Office and Nero fresh.

I found two file type manager programs that allowed you to edit the
registry via a GUI to set the program that opened a filetype. One even
allowed you to jump to the registry which then allowed me to export the
new setting and make .reg files. So now I have a ton of .reg files to
patch a new reload to get all my apps loading correctly.
I'm picky that I like open for jpg files to open a viewer but edit to
open photoshop. So I did a lot of work fixing all 'edit' and 'open'
commands. I'm not doing that twice. :-)

FileTypesMan v1.61

Copyright (c) 2008 - 2011 Nir Sofer

Web site: http://www.nirsoft.net

Default Programs Editor

http://defaultprogramseditor.com

Each had their goods and bads. So between them I was able to get what I
wanted.

"Peter Jason" wrote

| Win10pro Anniversary
|
| I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
| and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
| new one.
| Can this be done easily ?

I'm not sure about Win10. I use disk images
for XP and 7. There are two concerns I know
of:

1) For a new machine the motherboard drivers
should be uninstalled just before shutting down
to make a disk image. On XP, at least, a fatal
bluescreen can result from booting with wrong
drivers. By removing them you'll start on the
new machine with generic drivers and can then
install the new drivers.

2) Product activation. Assuming you have a full
version disk you'll need to contact MS to reactivate.
If you have OEM10, or OEM7 updated to 10, then
you don't officially have a license to move it to
a new machine. It might activate, or you might
have to lie, or it might not work.

In any case, any good disk manager software
(I like BootIt) can image partitions and put those
images on a new disk drive, whether system partitions
or data. Or you can just put the old disk into the
new computer temporarily and copy partitions
and/or the entire disk layout.

If you mean copying the software to a new OS,
that probably won't work so well. At one time it was
simple. Quarterdeck Clean Sweep used to work to
make a single package that could be put onto any
other machine. But these days, with spyware,
auto-updates and general complexity, many programs
probably can't be transferred. As an example, Firefox
uses at least 3 different locations: Program Files,
app data and local app data. You need to know how to
find all of that, back it up and copy it over. And FF
doesn't even require activation. Nor does it use the
Registry in any significant way. Software that uses
some kind of product key may demand that it be entered
again on the new system.

Then there are dependencies. You may have specific
system DLLs, .Net versions, etc that are needed by
particular software. I don't know of any current program
that can handle all that and create movable backups.
(Clean Sweep was bought by Symantec long ago. They
turned it into a useless backup program.)

Peter Jason wrote:
Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?
Peter

If the two computers are identical, then yes.
If not, then no.

In article ,
says...

Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?
Peter

Some cloning tools (e.g. Acronis True Image) claim to be able to image
one machine and restore it to another, and I have a friend who's
successfully done just that. There can be issues with activation of
licenses, of course, but most software other than OEM software allows a
transfer to another machine; you may have to uninstall or de-activate
first.

--

Phil, London

Philip Herlihy wrote:
In article ,
says...

Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?
Peter

Some cloning tools (e.g. Acronis True Image) claim to be able to image
one machine and restore it to another, and I have a friend who's
successfully done just that. There can be issues with activation of
licenses, of course, but most software other than OEM software allows a
transfer to another machine; you may have to uninstall or de-activate
first.


I wish that were true. Unfortunately it isn't. When you install Windows
on a computer, it sets itself up with drivers specific to that
computer’s motherboard and chipset. The drivers for the storage
controller, which allows the motherboard to communicate with the hard
disk, are particularly important. When Windows boots on different
hardware, it doesn’t know how to handle that hardware and won’t boot.

I've heard that this transfer program works, although I've never used it;
http://www.laplink.com/index.php
If anybody has, let us know what happened.

Ed

"Ed Cryer" wrote

| I wish that were true. Unfortunately it isn't. When you install Windows
| on a computer, it sets itself up with drivers specific to that
| computer's motherboard and chipset. The drivers for the storage
| controller, which allows the motherboard to communicate with the hard
| disk, are particularly important. When Windows boots on different
| hardware, it doesn't know how to handle that hardware and won't boot.
|
| I've heard that this transfer program works, although I've never used it;
| http://www.laplink.com/index.php
| If anybody has, let us know what happened.
|

I addressed that issue above. Uninstall the motherboard
drivers just before shutting down, so that Windows doesn't
have a chance to "find" them again. On the new machine
Windows will install generic drivers, which you can then
replace with the drivers for the new board.

I always keep 2 images handy in case my computer dies.
One is a fresh install of the OS, with all software and all
configured the way I like it. The other is the same image
with no motherboard drivers. That covers any need to replace
Windows on this computer, or on a new one, respectively.

After the move there will still be confusion as Windows
starts finding things before you get a chance to install drivers,
but it's manageable chaos. One just has to dismiss a lot
of "Found new hardware" dialogues until the new drivers
can be installed.

Mayayana wrote:
"Ed Cryer" wrote

| I wish that were true. Unfortunately it isn't. When you install Windows
| on a computer, it sets itself up with drivers specific to that
| computer's motherboard and chipset. The drivers for the storage
| controller, which allows the motherboard to communicate with the hard
| disk, are particularly important. When Windows boots on different
| hardware, it doesn't know how to handle that hardware and won't boot.
|
| I've heard that this transfer program works, although I've never used it;
| http://www.laplink.com/index.php
| If anybody has, let us know what happened.
|

I addressed that issue above. Uninstall the motherboard
drivers just before shutting down, so that Windows doesn't
have a chance to "find" them again. On the new machine
Windows will install generic drivers, which you can then
replace with the drivers for the new board.

I always keep 2 images handy in case my computer dies.
One is a fresh install of the OS, with all software and all
configured the way I like it. The other is the same image
with no motherboard drivers. That covers any need to replace
Windows on this computer, or on a new one, respectively.

After the move there will still be confusion as Windows
starts finding things before you get a chance to install drivers,
but it's manageable chaos. One just has to dismiss a lot
of "Found new hardware" dialogues until the new drivers
can be installed.



Does it work? It sounds ambitious to me. But if it works, then it works.
How do you ensure that all the m/b drivers are uninstalled?

Ed

"Ed Cryer" wrote

| Does it work? It sounds ambitious to me. But if it works, then it works.
| How do you ensure that all the m/b drivers are uninstalled?
|

I've done it for years. First with Partition Magic
and Drive Image for Win9x, and now with BootIt
images. On Win9x I'd just delete the
Registry Enum key that listed installed hardware. For
some reason that causes problems on NT. According
to my notes I did the following on XP:

Go to
device manager - ide/sata controllers - update driver -
"let me pick" - install generic.

It's maybe not a bad idea to also uninstall many of
the specific motherboard drivers, but I don't think I
did that. Removing the hard disk drivers stopped the
fatal bluescreen.

The way you know they're uninstalled is that you
manage to shut down Windows before seeing any
message like, "New Asus xyz321 installed successfully".
Windows may try to re-install the drivers, after a
few minutes or on the next boot. But you should be
able to just shut down after uninstalling them.
Drivers for video, graphics, etc don't
matter. They'll just be missing and need to be
installed on the new machine, but Windows will
provide a generic video driver in the meantime.
It's best npt to get carried away uninstalling. you
could end up with no input functionality, unable to
shut down.

On Mon, 22 Aug 2016 12:07:21 +0100, Ed Cryer wrote:

Philip Herlihy wrote:

Some cloning tools (e.g. Acronis True Image) claim to be able to image
one machine and restore it to another, and I have a friend who's
successfully done just that. There can be issues with activation of
licenses, of course, but most software other than OEM software allows a
transfer to another machine; you may have to uninstall or de-activate
first.


I wish that were true. Unfortunately it isn't.

I've used Macrium Reflect (paid version) to restore a system image to a new
PC a few times. No real issues to report. It wasn't seamless; you still have
to locate some drivers, but it worked fine in the end.

On Mon, 22 Aug 2016 08:18:23 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?


No. The registry has many entries referring to the hardware
configuration, and they will all be wrong.

On Mon, 22 Aug 2016 10:08:55 -0400, Mayayana wrote:

"Ed Cryer" wrote

| Does it work? It sounds ambitious to me. But if it works, then it
works.
| How do you ensure that all the m/b drivers are uninstalled?
|

I've done it for years. First with Partition Magic
and Drive Image for Win9x, and now with BootIt images. On Win9x I'd just
delete the Registry Enum key that listed installed hardware. For some
reason that causes problems on NT. According to my notes I did the
following on XP:

Go to
device manager - ide/sata controllers - update driver -
"let me pick" - install generic.

It's maybe not a bad idea to also uninstall many of
the specific motherboard drivers, but I don't think I did that. Removing
the hard disk drivers stopped the fatal bluescreen.

The way you know they're uninstalled is that you
manage to shut down Windows before seeing any message like, "New Asus
xyz321 installed successfully".
Windows may try to re-install the drivers, after a few minutes or on the
next boot. But you should be able to just shut down after uninstalling
them.
Drivers for video, graphics, etc don't
matter. They'll just be missing and need to be installed on the new
machine, but Windows will provide a generic video driver in the
meantime.
It's best not to get carried away uninstalling. you could end up with no
input functionality, unable to shut down.

The key thing here (preparing for a change of MoBo (whether planned or
the result of sudden failure) is to shut off the machine during the next
POST after allowing it to reboot "for the changes to take effect" when
windows demands a restart immediately after you've uninstalled the boot
drive's interface in device manager.

You then reboot using the "Rescue Media" (CD or USB pen drive) to create
the required disk/partition images from your cloning software's stand-
alone management tools. You now have an image that you can use to restore
from the next time you need to upgrade or replace the MoBo due to an
unexpected failure.

Actually, you really only need to create such an image as insurance
against sudden MoBo failure. If you're upgrading whilst the old MoBo is
still functioning, you simply swap boards after powering off during the
POST phase of the requested reboot and let windows sort the situation out
when it boots for the first time with the new MoBo.

--
Johnny B Good

Ken Blake wrote:
On Mon, 22 Aug 2016 08:18:23 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

Win10pro Anniversary

I'm building a new desktop computer with the latest Motherboard etc,
and I want to transfer a copy of everything from this computer to the
new one.
Can this be done easily ?


No. The registry has many entries referring to the hardware
configuration, and they will all be wrong.


There was a time when you would delete everything
below the ENUM key, and it would forget all
about the hardware.

But those convenient days are behind us. On Win2K
for example, you could create a "new" hardware profile,
and that operation was the equivalent of erasing ENUM.

And besides, in many cases this is unnecessary.

If your current motherboard has an Intel Southbridge
with standard IDE or AHCI setting, and the new motherboard
has the same branding, it "just works" when you fire it up.
So you won't get an "inaccessible boot volume".

I would be more worried about Activation and the OS freezing,
than about anything else right now. In some cases, you're
given 72 hours to resolve the license issue before the
OS goes nuts. But other times, people instead experience
a freeze and they cannot do a damn thing.

That's why you always clone or backup, before jamming
a hard drive into a foreign computer and booting from it
(or trying to boot from it).

Since Vista+ OSes only support Repair Install from
a running OS, we're cut off from an easy solution
to saving our user data and installed programs.
If you could boot from the DVD and do the Repair Install
from there, this would be easy. But if the OS freezes up,
there is no opportunity to run Setup.exe from your 14393
DVD and bring the OS up on the new machine. And since it is
a new computer, you have your $149 or $249 CDN Win10 key ready
to throw into the machine.

There are *lots* of things Microsoft has done
to help us... See the tears of joy on my face ?

Paul