Jeff_Birt
10-14-2007, 03:20 PM
This weekend I upgraded to a new laptop for work. I decided to install Vista as we will be rolling out more machines with Vista as for the first of the year (coordinating it with our name/domain change). Anyhow, I found two nice utilities from MS that helps to make the job a LOT easier. Windows Easy Transfer Companion and Windows Easy Transfer.
Windows Easy Transfer Companion (currently in Beta) is a free download that will transfer your installed programs from an XP machine over to your new Vista machine. It was able to copy the vast majority of programs I had installed (a lot of them), Designer and CorelDraw both transferred fine, but both had to be re-registered. (BTW, CBPE transferred fine too :p)
Windows Easy Transfer copies your user files and settings over to the new Vista machine. I had a bit of a problem with it which was tracked down to how our campus build of XP is installed, I would expect it to work fine on a typical XP installation. The only thing it did not seem to transfer was my patterns file 'Favorite.mpn) so I had to do that by hand.
What I found really convenient about both utilities is that they were easy to use. You start the transfer program on Vista and it will install a copy of itself onto a flash drive. Move the flash drive over to your XDP machine and run the transfer program. You can buy a special USB cable to transfer between the machines or you can do it over your network (or a crossover cable). I used the network option. For the network option you generate a transfer code on either machine (depending on which machine you ask to generate the code), type the code into the other machine. This allows the two machines to find each other on your network and they do the rest.
It saved me hours of time so I though I would pass the information along.
BTW, I know Mac have a similar transfer utility. Not being a Mac user I don't know how to use it though.
Windows Easy Transfer Companion (currently in Beta) is a free download that will transfer your installed programs from an XP machine over to your new Vista machine. It was able to copy the vast majority of programs I had installed (a lot of them), Designer and CorelDraw both transferred fine, but both had to be re-registered. (BTW, CBPE transferred fine too :p)
Windows Easy Transfer copies your user files and settings over to the new Vista machine. I had a bit of a problem with it which was tracked down to how our campus build of XP is installed, I would expect it to work fine on a typical XP installation. The only thing it did not seem to transfer was my patterns file 'Favorite.mpn) so I had to do that by hand.
What I found really convenient about both utilities is that they were easy to use. You start the transfer program on Vista and it will install a copy of itself onto a flash drive. Move the flash drive over to your XDP machine and run the transfer program. You can buy a special USB cable to transfer between the machines or you can do it over your network (or a crossover cable). I used the network option. For the network option you generate a transfer code on either machine (depending on which machine you ask to generate the code), type the code into the other machine. This allows the two machines to find each other on your network and they do the rest.
It saved me hours of time so I though I would pass the information along.
BTW, I know Mac have a similar transfer utility. Not being a Mac user I don't know how to use it though.