Topic: moving from an XP machine to a new Win7 machine?

[grumpy]

Is there an easy way to move all my crap from my old XP machine to a new Win7 macine?

I found this:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd446674(WS.10).aspx

but it's over my head and it looks like is for doing an OS opgrade rather than migrating to a new machine.

How do I do it?

[buffaloejon]

Ooh finally something I can give advice on. What all do you want? Just your documents and stuff, or bookmarks, program settings, etc

[grumpy]

Docs are pretty easy, no? Just copy all to an external HD and walk them over to the new one...
But what about all the other stuff?

Can I pull the HD out of the old machine & stick it in the 2nd disc bay or will the XP OS on that drive try to take over then new machine?

[buffaloejon]

Nope, it should dual boot as long as win 7 is correctLy installed, and you can import bookmarks, etc like that, and access documents as well

[333]

You can get a USB interface cable to hook that old HD to your new 7 machine, but you're not going to be able to move applications over to the new machine.  First, most all of your XP apps won't work on 7 without running them in compatibility mode, and even then, things like printing may still not work.  But mostly, when an app properly installs, it makes entries in the registry that if you were to just move the app folders from one machine to the other, those registry entries won't be there.  This is why you should always keep track of any and all hard copies of applications.

[SteveD CB500F]

I moved my XP drive to a spare bay as I have an old version of Sage Payroll that won't run under 7.

Dual boot gives you the best of both worlds. I like 7 a lot more than XP but everything is still there on the X: drive if I need it.

[Duanob]

DON'T DO IT!!!!!

You will hate it. You will have to re-learn everything that MS has beaten into you for the past 10 or 15 years and start all over again. And if you have any questions? Good F'n Luck! you will get answered better here than from MicroSoft.

I have XP at work and do all my comp stuff there. Our laptop at home has MS7 and it's a freakin paper weight as far as I'm concerned. I tried opening a .zip file and thought the thing was going to explode on me. guess what MS doesn't provide anything as simple as decompression software that opens .zip files. This is just one of a thousand complaints I have for 7. It's OS for dummies it will do what IT wants not what you want.

Hey Steve Balmer if you ride a SOHC4 and are reading this: FA-QUE!!!!!!!

[grumpy]

DON'T DO IT!!!!!

You will hate it. You will have to re-learn everything that MS has beaten into you for the past 10 or 15 years and start all over again. And if you have any questions? Good F'n Luck! you will get answered better here than from MicroSoft.

HA!!!!!!!
no kidding. my kids' laptops have 7. it drove me flippin nuts setting those things up but I think I have the hang of it now... sort of... maybe...

[333]

Here we go.  This could be like an oil thread.

7 is just fine.  Vast improvement over Vista.  Late last year, MS started pulling support for Vista.  This means "Windows Update".  Guess they know how crappy it is was.  And up until Aug 1 this year, MS was supporting all versions of XP.  Support never lasts forever.  At this point, MS is only supporting XP if you have Service Pack 3.  And if your machine can't handle it(some couldn't handle SP2), your support is over.

Some things in life aren't like the SOHC4 Honda's we love.  Although, one day, support for them will be completely gone as well.  But back to computers,(and other things in life as well) one must not stick their heads in the sand when advances come down the line.

[Duanob]

  But back to computers,(and other things in life as well) one must not stick their heads in the sand when advances come down the line.

No offense 333 but some people would think this is an "Advancement" from the original. Others not so much.

[Gordon]

Hmm...  I've been running XP on the current desktop for years, and then got a laptop about 1.5 years ago that runs 7.  It was a fairly seamless transition for me.  Don't recall coming across any headaches with it. 

[buffaloejon]

Like ANY major changes, its a pretty smooth transition for those that are savvy, and not so much for everyone else. The average user won't notice much difference except for the user interface, but 7 *is* an improvement functionally from all before.

That said, it doesn't do everything. .zip files have never opened natively in windows, as stupid as that is, but its pretty easy to find a program that opens compressed files. WinRar is my program of choice, and it opens any kind of compressed file you can imagine.

So, what most people judge are the user interface, which is arguably better, or arguably not, depending on how comfortable you are with computers. It seemed to me like grumpy is pretty savvy, judging by knowing that he could stick the old HD in a spare bay, so there's no reason to tell him not to switch.

[333]

That would explain why I never had an issue with zip's.  I only use Winrar.

[Retro Rocket]

Here we go.  This could be like an oil thread.

7 is just fine.  Vast improvement over Vista.  Late last year, MS started pulling support for Vista.  This means "Windows Update".  Guess they know how crappy it is was.  And up until Aug 1 this year, MS was supporting all versions of XP.  Support never lasts forever.  At this point, MS is only supporting XP if you have Service Pack 3.  And if your machine can't handle it(some couldn't handle SP2), your support is over.

Some things in life aren't like the SOHC4 Honda's we love.  Although, one day, support for them will be completely gone as well.  But back to computers,(and other things in life as well) one must not stick their heads in the sand when advances come down the line.

Recently went from XP to 7 and 7 is far better, faster all round, less complicated and i should have done it sooner...
+1 for winrar as well.....