Vista easy transfer network

Get your copy of Windows Server Hacks! In the past, administrators who wanted to move users from Windows desktop computers to Windows XP had two choices: upgrade existing computers to Windows XP or install a fresh copy of Windows XP on a new computer and migrate the user's files and program settings from the old computer to the new one.

While upgrading is the easiest option since it automatically migrates user settings , it has two disadvantages: users are stuck with older hardware, and a messed-up computer just gets messier. That's why I have always preferred migrations instead of upgrades when it comes to desktop computers. And if you wanted to migrate from Windows to Windows XP, you had two tools to use: the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard for migrating individual machines in a small business or home office environment or the User State Migration Tool USMT for enterprise environments that need greater control over migrating large numbers of machines.

Things are the same in Vista, only they have been updated. First, a new version of USMT, namely version 3. And second, the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard has now been replaced by the easier to use Windows Easy Transfer tool, which is the focus of this article. Let's walk through using Windows Easy Transfer to transfer user files and settings from a Windows XP machine to one running the latest build of Windows Vista. The way I've set this up is that my XP box and Vista box are both running as virtual machines within Microsoft Virtual Server, and I've taken the screen shots below from the main Virtual Server Administration window.

Note also that this article is based on a pre-release beta version of Windows Vista, so a few things might change between now and final release. To begin the transfer, click the start button and type "easy" without the quotes into the Start Search box and hit Enter to start Windows Easy Transfer this is easier than finding it in System Tools under Accessories.

Figure 1 shows the first screen of the Windows Easy Transfer wizard:. Figure 2: Select the Start a New Transfer option. If Windows Firewall is enabled on your Vista machine, a prompt will now appear asking you to enable an exception to allow Easy Transfer to work over the network. Next you'll be asked whether you have a USB cable you can use to perform the transfer between the two computers.

Since we're going to perform our transfer over the network, select No in Figure 4 below:. Figure 4: Choose the No option to perform the transfer over the network. This is needed since our source computer is running an earlier operation system Windows XP which doesn't have Easy Transfer installed on it yet see Figure 5 :.

Of course, if you want to burn the Setup files to a CD you can use the other option instead, but this article will use the shared folder method instead. Click Next and the Setup files are copied to the shared folder you may be asked first to provide credentials for connecting to the share.

The following kinds of programs cannot be transfered:. I am unable to transfer documents from windows vista to an older windows program. How am I to do this? I want to bring a powerpoint from vista to a windows Your best method for transferring, is to copy the document s to a CD or USB drive or if you are on a Network just map a drive to the other Computer. Using Windows Easy Transfer for something like this is probably not the best method.

Thanks for your website. For the files, if they are data files docs, spreadsheets, etc… you may want to burn them to CD, since trying to find a new computer with a floppy drive is going to be hard these days. Best way? I found that the best way to transfer is to follow these step-by-step instructions:. Thanks I have been to that web site before. You might want to take the old 3. MS had a beta version for a program that could transfer installed programs but they are no longer making it available any more I have re-edited the article above.

Either way, it's not the best method to use and probably why MS stopped supporting it. The best method is to start with a fresh install of the applications on your new system.

I made the cd to take to the XP machine and when I run it, it blue screens. I tried copying the files to the XP's hard drive rather than running them from the cd, but with no difference. Three times I have started it and had it blue screen on me. What am I doing wrong? I've got all my files from my windows vista laptop backed up on an external HDD. Microsoft has removed Windows Easy Transfer from Windows 10 and now suggests some third-party program PCmover Express, which costs money!

Luckily, there is a way to get around this problem. If you are using Windows XP or Vista, you can download the appropriate version from here:. Now, if you try to download the Vista version and run it on Windows 10, it gives you an error. However, if you have a Windows 7 bit machine, you can copy over the folder that contains the Windows Easy Transfer program to a USB stick and then run it on Windows 10 and it works just fine.

If you do not have access to a Windows 7 bit machine, I copied the folder and zipped it up, which you can download from here. If you have bit Windows 7, run the preinstalled bit version on the Windows 7 machine, but download the bit version on Windows It can import a bit version of an Easy Transfer file.

Simply uncompress the folder and run migwiz. Note that if you are doing an upgrade, think of the old machine as the old version of Windows, in this case Windows XP, Vista, or 7. Also, note that if you are upgrading Windows XP or Vista, you will need to download and install Windows Easy Transfer as it does not come with the program built-in.

The download links are above. To start, we will open Easy Transfer on the old machine, in my case Windows 7. Once you start it, the Welcome dialog will pop up and give you an overview of what items you can transfer:. Click Next and then choose the method you want to use to transfer between the old PC and Windows 8. If you are upgrading a computer to Windows 10, then you can choose external hard disk or USB flash drive since the old and the new computer is actually the same computer.

Here is a list from Amazon:. If you are transferring to Windows 10, then choose the USB method instead.