How Can I Painlessly Move my Settings and Data to my New Computer?

From:
WinXPnews E-Zine
Tue, Sep 2, 2003 (Vol. 3, 35 - Issue 91)
http://www.winxpnews.com/?id=91


Question: I have been using Windows XP for about six months on my old Pentium 3 with 128MB of RAM. 
I just bought a new computer - a Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 512MB of RAM with XP installed. I'm anxious to 
start reaping the benefits of all that processor power and memory, but I want to know if there's any easy 
way to move my data and even my user settings to the new machine, or do I have to just copy all the data 
files a few at a time to a floppy and reconfigure all the settings by hand? - Ron 

Answer: Microsoft built the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard into XP just for you! Not only can you transfer 
your data and settings from another XP computer, you can even move them from a Windows 9x/ME, NT or 
2000 machine to your new system. You need your Windows XP installation CD to do this on a non-XP computer. 
The first step is to run the Transfer Wizard on your old computer. If it runs XP, you can access the wizard by 
clicking Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | File and Settings Transfer Wizard. On other systems, 
run Setup from the CD and in the Setup menu, choose Perform Additional Tasks and then on the next page, 
choose Transfer files and settings. 

The easiest way to do this is if you have a home network to which both computers are connected. But if you don't, 
you can use a direct cable connection (connecting the two computers with a serial port cable), high capacity 
removable media, or save the data to the hard disk and burn it onto a CD if you have a CD writer. The wizard walks 
you through the steps. Next, you run the Transfer Wizard on the new computer, 
by selecting Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | File and Settings Transfer Wizard. 
Again, you'll be walked through the steps to import your settings and data. 

Note that there is an update to the Wizard that's available for download from the Windows Update site, 
called the User Migration Tool. See:
http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=030902QC-Move_Settings

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