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RSS feedsAt some point during your computing experiences you'll find that most programs just crawl and the latest graphics applications and office suites won't even install.
There's no choice but to get a new PC. The change from the old to the new computer can be a quick process, and usually begins with the installation of the current version of Windows on the new machine, if it was not pre-installed.
Many users transfer their personal documents by simply copying the contents of the My Documents folder - including all sub-folders - to the relevant folder on the new system using a network connection or a CD-R. After installing your applications, the changeover is virtually finished. Apparently.
But if you use this simple method of moving the system, you'll lose your personal working environment, consisting of innumerable Registry and Windows-GUI settings. Among the items affected are desktop properties such as the wallpaper, personalised icons, and sound and colour schemes.
Usability features, including your preferred double-click speed, keyboard shortcuts for quickly opening applications and the contents of the Start Menu and Task Bar will simply vanish.
Internet and email specific settings will go missing too, including Outlook Express account settings, cookies and Favorites, Internet Explorer security settings and all network connections.
In this expert guide, we'll show you how to do a professional relocation job.
Making the move
If you take a simple copy-and-paste approach to configuring your new system, you don't lose just easily reconfigured settings. Important data for which there might not be a replacement also vanishes.
For example, the Windows Address Book and its contents are left behind, along with Outlook Express messages and Newsgroup postings.
Microsoft Office users lose not only document templates, which take a lot of work to customise, but the macros and tool bars saved in those templates. In addition, you'll have discarded your customised spelling dictionaries.
The worst thing for most Office users is the loss of the contact addresses, emails and appointments managed by Outlook.
The main problem with these settings and data is that, in contrast to personal documents, they are not stored in a single place, but strewn all over the system as countless files and Registry entries.
It's not possible to use standard backup programs, as they don't know the exact storage and restoration locations, which vary from one version of Windows to another.
If you want to transfer this configuration data as painlessly as possible, you'll need to use one of the special migration tools discussed below, where we'll introduce the most important freeware and commercial products for this task.
However, if you're not afraid of a little manual work, and don't need to migrate whole applications, you can transfer the most important settings without third-party programs using built-in components only.
In this feature we describe where the data is stored what you need to know to move it.
Using Windows tools
The most important settings and data can be transferred to the new computer using built-in tools. Often, they can be simply copied using Windows Explorer. A Wizard in Windows XP makes the process particularly easy.
The most important tool in terms of transferring the working environment is the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. But the task is so big that you also have to save some settings and files manually.
However, this useful tool is only available when changing to Windows XP. Further steps, described in detail below, are necessary when migrating to or from other versions of Windows.
Some of the folders referred to are hidden system folders, which will have to be made visible before you can access them. To do this, open Windows Explorer, choose Tools/Folder Options/View and enable the 'Show hidden files and folders' option.
Automated saving
Windows XP's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard saves Windows settings in these categories:
- Appearance: Primarily desktop settings, including wallpaper, colour schemes, sounds and the position and appearance of the Task Bar.
- Actions: Settings such as the keyboard repeat rate or behaviour when double-clicking on Windows folders and files.
- Internet: How the connection to the internet is made and Internet Explorer settings, including Favorites (bookmarks), cookies, security settings, network connections and proxy settings.
- Email: information and settings needed to connect with your email server, including signature files, email rules, email and contact addresses. Outlook and Outlook Express are supported.
The Wizard also helps to migrate certain applications. In the main, these are Microsoft's own programs, such as applications from the Office suite or Microsoft Messenger. However, some widely used applications from other manufacturers are supported, including WinZip and Acrobat Reader.
Note that the Wizard only saves the applications' settings and not the programs themselves. The applications should be installed on the target computer before running the Wizard.
In addition the Wizard can transfer files and complete folders. This enables you, for example, to move all document files of a particular type from one computer to another. Documents are selected according to the file type.
Alternatively, you can simply let the Wizard migrate the entire contents of the My Documents folder, including sub-folders. This makes using a separate backup program unnecessary.
This generates much more data than will fit on a USB key or other removable media. The only alternative is to transfer the files/folders via a direct connection or over a network. If you do this, the (network) drive selected as the target must be accessible to both PCs and have enough free space.
Note that for security reasons, the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard does not transfer any passwords, such as those used for network connections. You'll have to enter them again on the target PC.
How Windows XP moves
The first thing the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard does is to collect the required data from the source computer. If you're upgrading from an older version of Windows, you can run the Wizard straight from the Windows XP CD.
To do this, select the Additional Tasks option from the Setup window and then click on Transfer files and settings. If the autoplay feature is turned off, then the Setup window can be opened by running SETUP.EXE on the Windows XP CD.
Using the Wizard is uncomplicated and largely self-explanatory. After clicking on Next, specify the transfer method to use. As long as both computers are networked, it is recommended to use a shared network folder whose path is specified with the Other Media option.
The only other choices are a slow direct connection via a serial cable or by using removable media, but using a floppy disk will only allow you to save settings. If you want to transfer more files, then each computer must, as a minimum, have a Zip drive. The Wizard does not support saving to a CD.
The next step is to specify the items to transfer. You can choose whether to transfer just settings, just files or both files and settings.
To change the default selection according to your own preferences, enable the Choose own settings check box and click on Next. In the next step you can add your own items to or remove items from the list.
Following this, the Wizard begins to collect the selected items, which it usually saves in a single compressed file on the selected target drive or network folder.
Transferring the saved files to the target computer also begins with the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. It can be started from the Windows XP Start Menu by selecting Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.
After viewing the introduction, set the computer as the New Computer and then select the 'I don't need the Wizard disk' option. Next, specify the place where the collected items are stored. Click on Next, and the Wizard begins the transfer. Finally, restart Windows to activate the changes.
Moving desktop contents
The Wizard saves secondary desktop settings such as wallpaper and designs. However, it ignores icons and links stored on the desktop.
A workaround for this is based on the fact that the desktop contents - apart from the Recycle Bin and other system icons - are stored as files in two folders.
One holds the current user's personal contents. In Windows XP/2000 it uses the path C:\ Documents and Settings\[Username]\Desktop. Content applicable to all users can be found in C:\ Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop.
In Windows 95 to Me, the folder C:\Windows\Desktop holds all desktop content, as long as no user profiles are in use. Transferring all icons and links can easily be done by hand using Windows Explorer: first copy the folder's contents to backup media, and from there into the relevant folder on the target computer.
Saving the Classic Start Menu
The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard duplicates the standard Windows XP Start Menu, but does not transfer the Classic Start Menu, which displays all programs after one click.
However, its contents, which are almost all files, can be copied manually to another computer using Windows Explorer.
To do this, Windows XP/2000 users have to copy the contents of C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu as well as C:\Documents and Settings \[Username]\Start Menu (personal Start Menu contents) to the target PC.
In Windows 95 to Me, the Start Menu contents can be found in the C:\Windows\Start Menu folder. Windows also stores the content of the classic Start Menu in the file system. A simple copying action will transfer it.
Windows address book
The Windows address book (personal address book) is a small database tool for addresses, virtually unchanged in form since Windows 95. Although it can be opened on its own from the Accessories menu, its main use is to store email addresses for Outlook Express.
To transfer the address book contents manually, simply copy the tool's data file from source PC to target PC. This will be a WAB file whose file name corresponds to the current user's username.
As the address book is stored in different places in different versions of Windows, the information about the file location can be viewed by choosing Help/About Address Book.
Outlook Express contents
Outlook Express saves its data in a directory which you can check by choosing Tools/Options/Maintenance/Store Folder from the main menu. These files are mostly DBX files that contain both the folder structure and the contents of the individual mail and newsgroup folders.
For the purposes of transferring the entire message-base, you should copy the whole content of the storage folder on the source computer to the corresponding folder on the target PC.
It's also possible to transfer individual mail folders (copy the DBX files that represent them), as long as these are standard folders such as Inbox or Drafts. User-defined mail and newsgroup folders have to be included in the FOLDERS.DBX file and it's not possible to transfer them individually.
Cookies and Web Favorites
Windows also stores internet Favorites in the form of files, which can be found in the folders C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Favorites (personal Favorites) and C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Favorites (all users' Favorites) if using Windows 2000 or XP.
In earlier versions of Windows without user profiles there is just a single folder for storing Favorites, called C:\Windows\Favorites.
To transfer the Favorites, copy the contents of these folders to the corresponding folder on the target PC. The same goes for cookies (if you want to), which, under Windows 2000 and XP, are stored in the C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Cookies folder.
See also:
The second and final part of our guide to breathing new life into an old system suggests more ways to upgrade your PC 06 Aug 2004
Is your PC looking a bit long in the tooth? We show you plenty of ways to breathe new life into an old system 06 Aug 2004All Software Applications
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