As a consequence of MS not going to support Win 10 any more, I'm
considering getting a new computer, and would like to install some of
the programmes, data, passwords etc from my existing computer onto the
new one. I understand there's software available that will do this
fairly painlessly. Does anyone have experience of such software, and
can they recommend anything in particular?
As a consequence of MS not going to support Win 10 any more, I'm
considering getting a new computer,
and would like to install some of
the programmes, data, passwords etc from my existing computer onto the
new one. I understand there's software available that will do this
fairly painlessly. Does anyone have experience of such software, and
can they recommend anything in particular?
On 07/06/2025 16:16, Chris Hogg wrote:
As a consequence of MS not going to support Win 10 any more, I'm
considering getting a new computer,
and would like to install some of
the programmes, data, passwords etc from my existing computer onto the
new one. I understand there's software available that will do this
fairly painlessly. Does anyone have experience of such software, and
can they recommend anything in particular?
I have not tried using specific migration applications, but do
frequently migrate stuff from one pc to another.
There are several approaches that can work depending on what kind of migration you want.
If you want a total migration - i.e. all the data, apps, the OS and all
the settings, then you can usually "move"[1] the entire drive into the
new pc (sometimes you may need to change the partition type before the
new PC will boot from it[2]). Win 10 and later are actually very good at coping with having the entire hardware platform swapped out under them,
and can often sort themselves out. Once old win 10 is installed onto the
new hardware, it would be eligible for a free upgrade to Win 11.
Moving a whole install has pros and cons - you get to keep everything as
it was, but that includes all the bits of annoying misconfigurations,
cruft, and malware etc
If you are happy to re-install your apps, and want a nice clean machine
to start with, then just migrating your data might be easier. For that, moving[3] the (most of the) content of c:\users\yourusername directory
to the same space on the new one will shift all your files on the
desktop and in the docs folder, music, video, and pictures folder.
If you want to shift a whole Thunderbird install, then that is in the (normally hidden) %appdata% folder (you can type that into the address
bar to ger there - it will usually take you to c:\users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming. Move the whole Thunderbird folder
to the new PC in the same location, before you run TB on the new PC - it should pop back with all accounts and settings as you left it.
For things like web history, passwords etc; you can either "export" them
to a file on the old machine and import on the new one. Of if the
browser is logged into an accounts (MS, Google, Mozilla etc), then
turning on Synch will allow all of it to automatically be restored onto
other machines when you login with the same browser account on them.
[1] You might be able to physically do that, but you would be better
cloning the source onto a new spare drive of a type appropriate for the
new one. Then you can swap out the new PCs drive for your clone. If
stuff goes wrong, you can always get back to square one.
[2] Old Master Boot Record drives (MBR) may not boot on new PCs with a
UEFI firmware BIOS - that may require the partition to be updated to a
GUID Partition Table (GPT). Many bits of cloning software can do this on
the fly when copying, alternatively there is a standard tool in windows
that can do it called MBR2GPT.exe.
[3] Can use an external drive, or share via network if both on the same
one. I often to the latter; and find it easier to do from the command line:
Set NTFS permissions for access in an "Administrator" command prompt:
So to share the user folder on the old machine:
"net share Source="C:\Users\yourusername" /grant:Username,FULL"
The set NTFS permissions for access to all the files:
"icacls "C:\Users\yourusername" /grant Username:(OI)(CI)F /T /C"
The "Username" should be that of a user on the source PC. When you try
to connect to that share on the new PC it will usually prompt for the username and password that applies on the old PC. (Note new Win 11 Pro
PCs will block access to shares that don't have a username and password associated with the shared resource). To access the share, start at the Network group on the new machine (enable network and file sharing if it
asks - and make network private), double click on the old machine, and
will will prompt for credentials. Once entered you should see a folder
called "Source" with all your stuff in it.
Perhaps we should do a wiki page for DIY data migration?
On 07/06/2025 18:35, John Rumm wrote:
Perhaps we should do a wiki page for DIY data migration?
Yes please.
I don't have to migrate data very often so a wiki would be very useful.
As a consequence of MS not going to support Win 10 any more, I'm
considering getting a new computer, and would like to install some of
the programmes, data, passwords etc from my existing computer onto the
new one. I understand there's software available that will do this
fairly painlessly. Does anyone have experience of such software, and can
they recommend anything in particular?
Perhaps we should do a wiki page for DIY data migration?
On 08/06/2025 10:18, wasbit wrote:
On 07/06/2025 18:35, John Rumm wrote:
Perhaps we should do a wiki page for DIY data migration?Yes please.
I don't have to migrate data very often so a wiki would be very useful.
May I echo that - I have done such migrations in the past with only
moderate problems, but only every N years, and my memory of what I did
last time doesn't last quite as long.
On Sun, 08 Jun 2025 16:36:37 +0100, Clive Page wrote:
On 08/06/2025 10:18, wasbit wrote:
On 07/06/2025 18:35, John Rumm wrote:
Perhaps we should do a wiki page for DIY data migration?Yes please.
I don't have to migrate data very often so a wiki would be very useful.
May I echo that - I have done such migrations in the past with only
moderate problems, but only every N years, and my memory of what I did
last time doesn't last quite as long.
For every computer we have (6 desktops, 4 servers, and a development
system) I have a hardback A4 logbook. Everything gets noted in there, and
I can refer back years (some machines are on volume 3). It works well.
On 07/06/2025 18:35, John Rumm wrote:
On 07/06/2025 16:16, Chris Hogg wrote:
As a consequence of MS not going to support Win 10 any more, I'm
considering getting a new computer,
and would like to install some of
the programmes, data, passwords etc from my existing computer onto the
new one. I understand there's software available that will do this
fairly painlessly. Does anyone have experience of such software, and
can they recommend anything in particular?
I have not tried using specific migration applications, but do
frequently migrate stuff from one pc to another.
There are several approaches that can work depending on what kind of
migration you want.
If you want a total migration - i.e. all the data, apps, the OS and
all the settings, then you can usually "move"[1] the entire drive into
the new pc (sometimes you may need to change the partition type before
the new PC will boot from it[2]). Win 10 and later are actually very
good at coping with having the entire hardware platform swapped out
under them, and can often sort themselves out. Once old win 10 is
installed onto the new hardware, it would be eligible for a free
upgrade to Win 11.
Moving a whole install has pros and cons - you get to keep everything
as it was, but that includes all the bits of annoying
misconfigurations, cruft, and malware etc
If you are happy to re-install your apps, and want a nice clean
machine to start with, then just migrating your data might be easier.
For that, moving[3] the (most of the) content of c:\users\yourusername
directory to the same space on the new one will shift all your files
on the desktop and in the docs folder, music, video, and pictures folder.
If you want to shift a whole Thunderbird install, then that is in the
(normally hidden) %appdata% folder (you can type that into the address
bar to ger there - it will usually take you to
c:\users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming. Move the whole Thunderbird
folder to the new PC in the same location, before you run TB on the
new PC - it should pop back with all accounts and settings as you left
it.
For things like web history, passwords etc; you can either "export"
them to a file on the old machine and import on the new one. Of if the
browser is logged into an accounts (MS, Google, Mozilla etc), then
turning on Synch will allow all of it to automatically be restored
onto other machines when you login with the same browser account on them.
[1] You might be able to physically do that, but you would be better
cloning the source onto a new spare drive of a type appropriate for
the new one. Then you can swap out the new PCs drive for your clone.
If stuff goes wrong, you can always get back to square one.
[2] Old Master Boot Record drives (MBR) may not boot on new PCs with a
UEFI firmware BIOS - that may require the partition to be updated to a
GUID Partition Table (GPT). Many bits of cloning software can do this
on the fly when copying, alternatively there is a standard tool in
windows that can do it called MBR2GPT.exe.
[3] Can use an external drive, or share via network if both on the
same one. I often to the latter; and find it easier to do from the
command line:
Set NTFS permissions for access in an "Administrator" command prompt:
So to share the user folder on the old machine:
"net share Source="C:\Users\yourusername" /grant:Username,FULL"
The set NTFS permissions for access to all the files:
"icacls "C:\Users\yourusername" /grant Username:(OI)(CI)F /T /C"
The "Username" should be that of a user on the source PC. When you try
to connect to that share on the new PC it will usually prompt for the
username and password that applies on the old PC. (Note new Win 11 Pro
PCs will block access to shares that don't have a username and
password associated with the shared resource). To access the share,
start at the Network group on the new machine (enable network and file
sharing if it asks - and make network private), double click on the
old machine, and will will prompt for credentials. Once entered you
should see a folder called "Source" with all your stuff in it.
Perhaps we should do a wiki page for DIY data migration?
Yes please.
I don't have to migrate data very often so a wiki would be very useful.
On Sat, 07 Jun 2025 16:16:18 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:
As a consequence of MS not going to support Win 10 any more, I'm
considering getting a new computer, and would like to install some of
the programmes, data, passwords etc from my existing computer onto the
new one. I understand there's software available that will do this
fairly painlessly. Does anyone have experience of such software, and can
they recommend anything in particular?
Laplink used to be free.
I have used it before to migrate systems.
However I recently migrated an old laptop to a new laptop and it did work >pretty well.
Despite the old laptop being W10 32 bit and the new one being W11 64 bit.
There was a cost, however.
I absorbed the cost because I had no idea until I tried it out, and hadn't >told my friend there would be any cost.
The charge covers a single migration, but seemed worth it.
Below £100 but not by very much, IIRC.
HTH
Dave R
--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64
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