If the new machine is W7Pro then you can virtualise the old machine using the sysinternals tool Disk2vhd. We did this for a client's network and put a virtualised version of their old machine on the new one. Then you can take your time choosing which programs you need and can re-install and which are no longer of use.
Windows 7 does a lot of things built-in which under XP and vista required other programs, so this is a chance to keep it clean. You might find that the new machine is 64 bit, in which case it could get much more complicated. Mike From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 01 March 2010 14:03 To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: MOVING TO NEW COMPUTER I think Carl had it right... LapLink, and you're probably right on that being ini files instead of reg entries... Still MUCH better to get a fresh install of the app. :) [cid:[email protected]][cid:[email protected]] From: Gary Whitten [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 8:58 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: MOVING TO NEW COMPUTER Murray, you won't be able to run them off of D simply because the system won't know they're there in the registry, menus, etc. You'd actually probably end up wasting time over a fresh install getting them to work. You may want consider doing your new system in a way to facilitate this for the next move; install your new system with two drives/partitions, with the apps on one (OS) and the data folders being mapped as much as feasible to the other. Then, when you have to reinstall/move again, you just reinstall and remap the folders. John, If you're referring to FAST, I believe it'll move my documents, all it's subfolders as well as additional data under Documents and Settings like Local Settings, App Data etc. Like you, I believe fresh installs are the way to go to get all the registry entries right, etc. I can't remember the flavor of utility that had them some years ago if it was Partition Magic type programs or what, but something used to move programs from one drive letter to another, but if memory serves, that was more in the era of .ini configs vs. registry configs where we are now. ________________________________ From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 8:41 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: MOVING TO NEW COMPUTER No. Some stuff might work, but the vast majority will need to be reinstalled. However, the Wizard that comes with Windows *might* be able to move the installed programs to the new computer. I have never tried it myself, preferring to do a fresh install of all programs. [cid:[email protected]][cid:[email protected]] From: Murray Freeman [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 5:02 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: MOVING TO NEW COMPUTER I'm well aware that if I purchase a new computer, it most likely will come with Windows 7 installed. I would like to be able to easily and quickly retain all my existing files and programs, and I know that I can't just move my old hard disk drive into the new machine and make it drive 0 and be up and running without some work. So, I'm thinking about just adding my old drive as drive "D" on the new machine and running the old programs off of that drive. I can always move files and non-program stuff to the new drive, or to a 2nd partition on the new drive but to reinstall my old programs will be a pain. Will my approach work? Also, if I choose to get a laptop to replace my old desktop, since I won't be able to install my old hard drive from my old desktop computer, can I just partition the drive and then do an image copy to the 2nd partition without any real issues? Murray ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
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