Setting Up A New Windows 10 Computer

Suppose a neighbor came to you and said, "I just bought an XYZZY desktop
computer [or laptop, it doesn't matter for this question] to replace the
Vista-based one I've been using. I'd like you to set it up for me,
including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;
installing the programs I was using on the old machine (MS Office 2007
[assume he has a disk], chrome, firefox, thunderbird, etc.) and restore
the four accounts I have in Thunderbird. Of course, I'd like the
bookmarks from my old browsers. Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

Thanks.

On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 14:47:14 -0400, Alek
wrote:

Suppose a neighbor came to you and said, "I just bought an XYZZY desktop
computer [or laptop, it doesn't matter for this question] to replace the
Vista-based one I've been using. I'd like you to set it up for me,
including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;
installing the programs I was using on the old machine (MS Office 2007
[assume he has a disk], chrome, firefox, thunderbird, etc.) and restore
the four accounts I have in Thunderbird. Of course, I'd like the
bookmarks from my old browsers. Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

Thanks.


Shouldn't be too hard, but certainly time consuming.

Best bet is network them, establish -permissions, and copy most of the
files that way, after installing whatever programs are needed.

With Thunderbird, you'll have to drill down in the user area to find
the existing folders, then copy them into a new install of TBird.

FireFox is easier. Create a Sync account on the old system, and then
on the new system, and you'll get everything easily. Not sure on
Chrome, but likely the same, or close.

On 8/1/2017 2:47 PM, Alek wrote:
Suppose a neighbor came to you and said, "I just bought an XYZZY desktop
computer [or laptop, it doesn't matter for this question] to replace the
Vista-based one I've been using. I'd like you to set it up for me,
including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;
installing the programs I was using on the old machine (MS Office 2007
[assume he has a disk], chrome, firefox, thunderbird, etc.) and restore
the four accounts I have in Thunderbird. Of course, I'd like the
bookmarks from my old browsers. Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

Thanks.

Assuming the OS is already set up. However, just because it is a new
computer don't assume there will be no updates. Several months ago, I
bought a new laptop. As I tried to set it up I found that it had not
been updated to the Windows 10 Creator editon, which took a couple of
hour to install. There were other updates that also had to be installed
on the new computer. This depends on the date the OS was placed on the
disk, and the updates that occurred until you bought the computer.

Assuming that you have a LAN connection between the computers.

------"including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;"

To transfer the data, I would just copy the main folders from the Vista
Computer to the new computer. ie if there is a folder TOM in Vista
equivalent of My Documents, I would copy TOM to My Documents on the new
computer. If there is a data folder PETE on the C: drive of the old
computer, I would copy PETE to the C drive of the new computer.

TIME: Depends on the amount of data and and the connection between the
computers.

------"installing the programs I was using on the old machine"
I would down load fresh copies of all software like Chrome Firefox,
Thundebird, etc. from the authors site ie Firefox from Mozilla.

TIME: For the Mozilla products it takes about five minutes to down load
and install. It will depend on what the other software is, for an
office suite it could take up to an hour.

------"and restore the four accounts I have in Thunderbird. Of course,
I'd like the bookmarks from my old browsers"

As for copying the data for Firefox and Mozilla, all account
information, book marks, etc is in the Profile. First for each, find
the file Profile.ini and the Folder Profile on the old machine and copy
them in to the corresponding folders create in the new installation on
the new machine.

TIME: For the Mozilla products it will take less that 10 minute for both.

I don't use Chrome so have no idea of what it takes to copy the settings
from the old to the new.

I would allow at least four to five hours elapsed time to make the
change. Direct involvement would be less. I would also include a couple
of hours for remedial actions, as he uses the new computer and asked for
user specific changes.



--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

On 01/08/2017 20:26, wrote:
On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 14:47:14 -0400, Alek
wrote:

Suppose a neighbor came to you and said, "I just bought an XYZZY desktop
computer [or laptop, it doesn't matter for this question] to replace the
Vista-based one I've been using. I'd like you to set it up for me,
including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;
installing the programs I was using on the old machine (MS Office 2007
[assume he has a disk], chrome, firefox, thunderbird, etc.) and restore
the four accounts I have in Thunderbird. Of course, I'd like the
bookmarks from my old browsers. Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

Thanks.


Shouldn't be too hard, but certainly time consuming.

Best bet is network them, establish -permissions, and copy most of the
files that way, after installing whatever programs are needed.

With Thunderbird, you'll have to drill down in the user area to find
the existing folders, then copy them into a new install of TBird.

FireFox is easier. Create a Sync account on the old system, and then
on the new system, and you'll get everything easily. Not sure on
Chrome, but likely the same, or close.





there is a program called Mozbackup for backing up all of thunderbird
and reinstalling the resulting file. Google it

On Tue, 01 Aug 2017 12:26:18 -0700, wrote:

With Thunderbird, you'll have to drill down in the user area to find
the existing folders, then copy them into a new install of TBird.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer

FireFox is easier. Create a Sync account on the old system, and then
on the new system, and you'll get everything easily. Not sure on
Chrome, but likely the same, or close.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

--
s|b

On 08/01/2017 03:26 PM, wrote:
Not sure on
Chrome, but likely the same, or close.



Chrome has a sync too.

On 8/1/2017 3:46 PM, critcher wrote:
On 01/08/2017 20:26, wrote:
On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 14:47:14 -0400, Alek
wrote:

Suppose a neighbor came to you and said, "I just bought an XYZZY desktop
computer [or laptop, it doesn't matter for this question] to replace the
Vista-based one I've been using. I'd like you to set it up for me,
including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;
installing the programs I was using on the old machine (MS Office 2007
[assume he has a disk], chrome, firefox, thunderbird, etc.) and restore
the four accounts I have in Thunderbird. Of course, I'd like the
bookmarks from my old browsers. Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

Thanks.


Shouldn't be too hard, but certainly time consuming.

Best bet is network them, establish -permissions, and copy most of the
files that way, after installing whatever programs are needed.

With Thunderbird, you'll have to drill down in the user area to find
the existing folders, then copy them into a new install of TBird.

FireFox is easier. Create a Sync account on the old system, and then
on the new system, and you'll get everything easily. Not sure on
Chrome, but likely the same, or close.





there is a program called Mozbackup for backing up all of thunderbird
and reinstalling the resulting file. Google it
Mozbackup has not been support for a number of years.

--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

On 08/01/2017 02:47 PM, Alek wrote:
Suppose a neighbor came to you and said, "I just bought an XYZZY desktop
computer [or laptop, it doesn't matter for this question] to replace the
Vista-based one I've been using. I'd like you to set it up for me,
including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;
installing the programs I was using on the old machine (MS Office 2007
[assume he has a disk], chrome, firefox, thunderbird, etc.) and restore
the four accounts I have in Thunderbird. Of course, I'd like the
bookmarks from my old browsers. Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

Thanks.

When I reload it takes me about 2-3 hours to get most data and programs
setup. It's the tweaks that take a few more hours. I'm quite
familiar where some .ini files are located for some programs like crap
cleaner and notepad++ so setups like that are bing bing done!.

I would estimate a min of 4 hours. But as has been said: How many os
updates are you wasting time on? How proficient are you with a PC? How
many unknown issues will you face, like networking? (which can be fixed
with a simple thumb drive copy).

You might be lucky as I am with my sister's machine, just copy the major
folders in home folder and she uses web browser mail at yahoo.com, so
email is never lost. I can do that in 30 minutes. LOL

Keith Nuttle wrote:


I would allow at least four to five hours elapsed time to make the
change. Direct involvement would be less. I would also include a couple
of hours for remedial actions, as he uses the new computer and asked for
user specific changes.

I think that's a pretty good estimate.

These estimates vary, depending on "what discs you
have in your kit bag" and how much effort you've put
into automating things. Also, whether the customer is
looking over your shoulder or not. That adds 1.5 hours
to the job, if they look over your shoulder.

For example, say you were silly enough to offer to install
the latest Cumulative for Win10. There's an hour shot right there.
You only want to do maintenance of that sort on the machine,
where you are in control (and not Microsoft). As a consequence
of the extraordinary long delays for Windows Maintenance to
do stuff, I'd have to decline to do that stuff on site
(a person who was a stickler for details, would be tempted
to do that sort of thing). Don't polish the damn machine,
because then the estimate is 12 hours :-)

To stop indexing on the computer:

Go to the Indexing control panel, and remove *all* the items
from the list. Then select the option to regenerate the
search database. It'll stop instantly.

To stop Windows Defender from wasting your time
(using Administrator Powershell window)

Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring 1

WD RealTime will re-enable itself if you reboot, or, if the machine
is left completely idle for an hour or so (best guess).

*******

Additional tasks:

1) 3 recovery DVDs, driver DVD, emergency boot CD (WinPE based).
Bring a small cake box of discs with you. Preferably not the
annoying ones that "ask to be formatted". Maybe a DVD+R would
be cheap and get the job done. That's because, even when prompted,
ordinary users just ignore requests to prepare recovery media. The
machine should make *two* prompts within the same day, the OEM
prompt for four discs, the Microsoft prompt for the emergency
boot CD.

2) Install a copy of Macrium Reflect Free (or one of the
other free ones Easeus or Aomei or whatever). Prepare and
burn the emergency boot CD for Macrium too, as it has a boot
repair menu item.

*******

Programs can be migrated automatically, but the software to do it
has fairly expensive T&C. And you still have to verify afterwards
that it worked, which takes most of the value out of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplink_PCmover

https://www.easeus.com/pc-transfer/f...ternative.html

http://www.zinstall.com/products/zinstall-vs-pcmover

The other class of tools (these are the ones I wouldn't
consider under any circumstances).

FAST - File And Settings Transfer wizard (Doesn't move programs)
WET - Windows Easy Transfer (Doesn't move programs)
Laplink PCMover Express - Bundled with Win10, Doesn't move programs
- It's the "neutered" version of PCMover.
- Not Free after Aug.2016
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2490440,00.asp

I could imagine recommending the "real" PCMover, to one of those people
who is a pack-rat, and has installed all the programs in the known
world. There was a person who managed to exceed the 500 program
limit for the Win10 menu, and that's the kind of jackass I'd
be selling a copy of PCMover to (Microsoft may have lifted that
limit since then). Because it would take eons to dig up all the
materials to reinstall those. A quick glance at Programs and Features
on the old (Vista) machine, should give some idea what lies ahead.

So the time estimate is still five hours for the Pack-Rat customer,
but the bill includes them buying a $50 or so copy of PCMover. And
it's only good for the one transfer. And that program isn't all that
fast either. A good question would be, whether you can burn
the recovery media, at the same time PCMover is moving stuff.

Paul

On 01 Aug 2017, Keith Nuttle wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-10:

Mozbackup has not been support for a number of years.

Still works, though.

Alternately, you can just manually copy the whole profile directory (or
zip it up) from the old machine to the new. Then edit profiles.ini to
reflect the new profile name. I've done it dozens of times with both
Thunderbird and Firefox.

wrote on 8/1/2017 3:26 PM:
On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 14:47:14 -0400, Alek
wrote:

Suppose a neighbor came to you and said, "I just bought an XYZZY desktop
computer [or laptop, it doesn't matter for this question] to replace the
Vista-based one I've been using. I'd like you to set it up for me,
including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;
installing the programs I was using on the old machine (MS Office 2007
[assume he has a disk], chrome, firefox, thunderbird, etc.) and restore
the four accounts I have in Thunderbird. Of course, I'd like the
bookmarks from my old browsers. Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

Thanks.


Shouldn't be too hard, but certainly time consuming.

Thanks. I know how to do all of that, but am looking for a number.

Keith Nuttle wrote on 8/1/2017 3:43 PM:
On 8/1/2017 2:47 PM, Alek wrote:

snip

Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

Thanks.

Assuming the OS is already set up. However, just because it is a new
computer don't assume there will be no updates. Several months ago, I
bought a new laptop. As I tried to set it up I found that it had not
been updated to the Windows 10 Creator editon, which took a couple of
hour to install. There were other updates that also had to be installed
on the new computer. This depends on the date the OS was placed on the
disk, and the updates that occurred until you bought the computer.

Assuming that you have a LAN connection between the computers.

------"including copying my documents, pictures, videos, music, etc files;"

To transfer the data, I would just copy the main folders from the Vista
Computer to the new computer. ie if there is a folder TOM in Vista
equivalent of My Documents, I would copy TOM to My Documents on the new
computer. If there is a data folder PETE on the C: drive of the old
computer, I would copy PETE to the C drive of the new computer.

TIME: Depends on the amount of data and and the connection between the
computers.

Suppose the amount is 1 GB.


I would allow at least four to five hours elapsed time to make the
change. Direct involvement would be less. I would also include a couple
of hours for remedial actions, as he uses the new computer and asked for
user specific changes.

What do you mean by direct involvement?

Thank you for taking the time to read my question and trying to provide
the answer to my question. So many respondents thought I was asking "How
do I do this?" but I was not. :-)

On 8/1/2017 5:03 PM, Nil wrote:
On 01 Aug 2017, Keith Nuttle wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-10:

Mozbackup has not been support for a number of years.

Still works, though.

Alternately, you can just manually copy the whole profile directory (or
zip it up) from the old machine to the new. Then edit profiles.ini to
reflect the new profile name. I've done it dozens of times with both
Thunderbird and Firefox.

If you replace the folder Profile and the file Profile.ini (both are in
the same directory) you do not have to edit anything. The profile.ini
file from the old machine contains the lower profile folder with the
character name. When you move the the file and the folder, everything
is transferred to the new machine, including the same character name
folder that was on the old computer(It is in the Profile folder)


--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

On 8/1/2017 5:38 PM, Alek wrote:
Keith Nuttle wrote on 8/1/2017 3:43 PM:
On 8/1/2017 2:47 PM, Alek wrote:

snip

Roughly, how long will that take?"

I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?

computers.

Suppose the amount is 1 GB.
1 MB will take about a tenth the time as 1GB and about half as long as 2GB.




What do you mean by direct involvement?



When I install a program I always consider there are two part. One part
occurs when you start the install and it runs for a period with no
involvement from you.

The other part requires your direct involvement; Answering question,
Adding the name of folders, the parameters for your internet
connections, your time zone, answering The agreements, etc.




--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

On 01/08/2017 19:47, Alek wrote:
Suppose a neighbor came to you and said, "I just bought an XYZZY desktop
computer [or laptop, it doesn't matter for this question] to replace the
Vista-based one I've been using. I'd like you to set it up for me,

You need to tell them that you are also as idiot as they are for coming
to you for computer setup!!! Why don't you tell them to go to their
local geek shop who can fix their machine for a small fee? You are very
ingenuous for not being frank with them. That is how idiots behave!!!


I know it's impossible to give a precise answer but how about a WAG?


What about them? Wife and Girl friends of footballers have nothing to
do with computers? They are just bimbos!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGs




--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.