Copying files and folders to a new machine--indexing, browser, ande-mail.

There are so many replies on my similar thread, I thought I'd get this
question here, which would probably be missed over there.

I think there's a choice between index or no index when copying one PC
to another. As I vaguely recall when I did my transfer, there was a
choice. Is there?

I think the browser for MS is IE. What if my friend wanted to copy
bookmarks from whatever browser he's using on the old CP onto the new
laptop, is it possible, or they (TB. Outlook Express?) are the same?
What about copying mail from his e-mail program, if they differ or are
both the same.

On 2/9/2014 3:11 PM, W. eWatson wrote:
There are so many replies on my similar thread, I thought I'd get this
question here, which would probably be missed over there.

I think there's a choice between index or no index when copying one PC
to another. As I vaguely recall when I did my transfer, there was a
choice. Is there?

I think the browser for MS is IE. What if my friend wanted to copy
bookmarks from whatever browser he's using on the old CP onto the new
laptop, is it possible, or they (TB. Outlook Express?) are the same?
What about copying mail from his e-mail program, if they differ or are
both the same.


Thunderbird has an import capability that can bring in mail and address
books from Outlook and Outlook Express. See
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Category:Issues_(Thunderbird) or do a search
at http://www.mozillazine.org/.

--
David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

Where does your elected official stand? Which
politicians refuse to tell us where they stand?
See the non-partisan Project Vote Smart at
http://votesmart.org/.

W. eWatson wrote:
There are so many replies on my similar thread, I thought I'd get this
question here, which would probably be missed over there.

I think there's a choice between index or no index when copying one PC
to another. As I vaguely recall when I did my transfer, there was a
choice. Is there?

I think the browser for MS is IE. What if my friend wanted to copy
bookmarks from whatever browser he's using on the old CP onto the new
laptop, is it possible, or they (TB. Outlook Express?) are the same?
What about copying mail from his e-mail program, if they differ or are
both the same.

When you attempt to restore an *environment*, from one machine
to another, you become an "IT guy". Research each area, find
the best practices, then do it. Can an ordinary user do this ?
Yes, with enough effort. Can we do it remotely here, guessing
at what needs doing on this person's machine ? Probably not.
When an ordinary person does it, they usually end up judging
the results, by "symptoms", and adding steps to the procedure
to finish the job. Like, remembering to bring across the
CODEC packs, so movies can be watched like before. There are
all sorts of little things, that might be forgotten.

Since some of the steps involve "Export/Import" methods,
and not just copying folders of files, it doesn't pay to
trash the source machine immediately. Export/Import methods,
convert proprietary formats of things, into lower grade
"standard" representations, that a new tool will be
able to Import. Like moving mail from Outlook on an old
machine, to Thunderbird on a new machine. Or moving
bookmarks from one browser to another, that can use
Export/Import.

When a computer does "Indexing", it scans all the files
on the computer. (The index is used to conduct searches
later, and acts as an information cache for searches.)
There is no point dragging an index across, of that sort,
since it'll no longer be valid. The computer should just
generate a new one. In fact, on my laptop, any sort of
System Image activity, may trigger regeneration of the Index,
so it's twitchy at the best of times. It takes my laptop
around 3 hours to regenerate the index.

If it's an index for something else, I haven't a clue what
that might be.

Imagine if we had to write a procedure, for every possible
step for this sort of thing. How long that post would be.

If it was that easy to do, and do a comprehensive job,
there'd be a script for it by now.

Paul