Prepare to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista

Imagine being seconds away from updating Windows XP to Windows Vista, and the worst happens: a power cut; lightning strikes your house; aliens land on the roof; or more mundanely, your hard drive fails. No matter how unlikely it is that anything will go wrong, I’d never risk all my photos, emails and other mementos on the chance, particularly when it’s so easy to protect them using Windows Backup. You’ll find this in Start > All Programs > Accessories, though if you’re running Windows XP Home, then you’ll need to install the utility first – you’ll find it in the VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP folder on the installation CD. If you want an even easier option, dumping My Documents and any personal folders on a DVD or CD, takes less than half an hour.

Be it lightning, a power cut or an alien attack, it's worth backing up before you run Windows Vista

Fight the temptation to tidy up My Documents before backing up – just be selective when you restore the data. Check where more obscure programs store files by checking their File > Save menu, and don’t forget ‘save points’ for games. They’re usually in their folders in Program Files. If you’ve bought online applications, then grab the keys/passwords for these as well (and the actual files). And if other members of your household use the same machine, then you’ll need to do all of this for each account.

The manual approach isn’t the only choice, though. Windows Vista introduces Windows Easy Transfer, a new program that makes it really easy to copy all the important settings over. While you can use it to get files off an old computer and on to your new Windows Vista machine – either by connecting their USB ports with an Easy Transfer cable, or connecting them both to a home network – you can also use it to back up a PC before installing Windows Vista on it.

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It doesn’t support every program, and you’ll still need to reinstall lots of stuff once you’ve got your new system in place. But it’s a lot easier than painstakingly tracking down long-forgotten set-up details.

Getting Started

Why transfer settings manually when Windows Easy Transfer makes it easier? Place the Windows Vista disc in your old system, wait for the Install Windows screen to appear, and click Transfer files and settings from another computer.

Windows Easy Transfer ensures a smooth transition for your files

To Transfer

Click Next > Close All, if necessary, to close any running programs. Next, choose how you’ll be transferring data. An Easy Transfer Cable is best, but we’ll demonstrate another simple solution, which is to Use a CD, DVD or other removable media

We recommend saving your files to a DVD, although there are other options

Pick a drive

Easy Transfer can use USB flash drives, or a network drive that your PC can access, but if you don’t have either, then click CD (which can also mean DVD). Pick a CD or DVD writer from the list, and password protect your files if others might access them.

Unless you're extremely suspicious or a secret agent, there's no real need for password protecting your files.

What files?

Decide what you want to move. You can click All user accounts, files, and settings to transfer the lot, but that requires lots of space – ideally a network drive. We’re using DVDs, so click Advanced options and we can be more selective.

Just like moving home, there's no need to take everything with you. Click advanced and select what you really need.

Which settings?

You’ll now see a tree of every group of files and settings that Easy Transfer can move, with their total size displayed bottom right. Browse the list, clearing the check boxes next to entries you don’t need, until they’ll fit on a reasonable number of DVDs

Don't be a pack rat; just take what you use.

Burn data

Place a blank, writeable CD or DVD in the drive you specified earlier, and click Next. Windows Easy Transfer will copy the checked files and settings on to the disc – prompting you to replace it with another if you need more than one.

You can always use more than one DVD, if need be.

At the new PC

Put the first disc in a drive. Click Start (the round logo where the Start button used to be) > Computer, then choose the drive containing your disc. Doubleclick on the Migration store file it contains to import the transferred data and settings.

Just put in the disc and you're away.

Who are you?

Your PC may not have the same user account names as your old one (maybe you were ‘Jane Smith’, but are now just ‘Jane’), so you’re asked which new accounts should be used for each old one you’re moving. Pick an account from the list and click Next.

Dozens of things refer to your user account name, so keep it sensible.

Let's do it

Click Transfer and leave the PC to it, switching discs as prompted. When complete, click Show me everything that was transferred if you want a list of every file and Registry setting added or changed. Otherwise click Close and you’ve finished.

All done. Read the transfer report, make sure things are fine, and then you're away!

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