How to transfer your programs to your new PC

So you’ve splashed out on a new PC. It’s perfect in every way except for one thing: all your settings, programs and fi les are on your old PC. The solution is to transfer them, but the process can be complicated. What do you want to transfer? Where is it on your current system? How will you copy it across to your new PC? Fortunately, there are different options out there to make the process that bit easier.

Pick a technique

It’s possible to manually copy the files and settings you need across to your new PC, but it’s impractical – the My Documents folder is easy enough, but what about your email messages and settings? Do you know where your program preferences are stored? Thankfully you don’t have to worry: Windows Vista comes with its own Windows Easy Transfer application that enables you to transfer all your files and settings from your old PC to new.

You need to run Windows Easy Transfer on both machines – start with your new PC, which will give options for transferring the tool onto your old PC if necessary. It’ll also generate a key that you’ll need to enter on your old PC to make the connection.

Once you’ve switched to your old PC, you’ll be taken through the same wizard. Then, when you’ve indicated it’s your old computer and entered the required key, you’ll be prompted about what you want to transfer. You can pick all the User Accounts, just your account, or choose specific files and settings by clicking the Advanced option.

You can’t transfer programs across with Windows Easy Transfer – there is a Windows Easy Transfer Companion program available, but it’s currently in beta and only supports US English systems (see Microsoft Support for details). In the meantime, if you want to transfer programs from your old PC to your new one, you can do so manually or we’d recommend buying a copy of Laplink’s PCmover application.

Transfer methods

You’ll need some means of connecting the PCs together, and there are three options. The first is to use an existing network – if both PCs are visible to each other you can transfer everything across. If the network is already in place this is the logical choice.

It’s also possible to buy a dedicated USB transfer cable, which links both PCs together physically. The cable itself is specially designed for data transfer, so you can’t just use any USB cable, and it requires special software to work – both PCmover and Windows Easy Transfer work with the necessary cable. Helpfully, Laplink is currently giving away a free USB1.1 cable with all purchases of PCmover.

The third option is to transfer the files and settings to an external hard drive or disc (including CD, DVD and flash drive), then hook that up to your new PC and let it pull everything across. The advantage is that the PCs don’t need to be networked or close together, but it does lengthen the process considerably, and you may need a large number of CDs or DVDs if you’ve got a lot of data to transfer.

Transfer everything using PCmover