How To Migrate Apps To New Computer

paris1968 • Contributing Member • Posts: 517

Best Way to Migrate Programs and Files to New Computer

Dec 14, 2016

My old computer is Windows 7, and my new computer is Windows 10. What is the best way to transfer all of my programs, files, and settings to my new computer? I have many Adobe programs which need to be transferred, including Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, and Audition. Another problem is that my new computer has a 512 Mb SSD, and while I want to make sure that my programs go on that drive, I want my files to go on another drive instead.

Am I correct in assuming that I would need to deactivate the Adobe programs on the old machine before I could active them on the new one, or is that not necessary?

CAcreeks • Forum Pro • Posts: 17,363

Re: Best Way to Migrate Programs and Files to New Computer

paris1968 wrote:

My old computer is Windows 7, and my new computer is Windows 10. What is the best way to transfer all of my programs, files, and settings to my new computer? I have many Adobe programs which need to be transferred, including Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, and Audition. Another problem is that my new computer has a 512 Mb SSD, and while I want to make sure that my programs go on that drive, I want my files to go on another drive instead.

You deactivate your Adobe programs on the old computer, probably using menu picks, and then activate them on the new one. My wife did this with Acrobat Pro, which is the only one she has. If transfer works, uninstall on the old computer to avoid notification spam.

My wife copied everything important from her old computer onto the HDD drive (D:) of the new computer.

Our PC Talk forum decided that it's best to leave C:\Users in place, and create a D:\MyStuff folder, or whatever you want to name it, on the HDD. Also you'd have D:\OldStuff from your previous computer.

This strategy seems to work pretty well for my wife. Sometimes old programs in D:\OldStuff\Program_Files still work, if they don't involve the Registry.

She also installed Classic Shell because we both decided she would go bonkers having to deal with the Windows 10 start tiles, and Cortana.

edispics • Veteran Member • Posts: 4,405

Re: Best Way to Migrate Programs and Files to New Computer

In reply to CAcreeks • Dec 14, 2016

CAcreeks wrote:

paris1968 wrote:

My old computer is Windows 7, and my new computer is Windows 10. What is the best way to transfer all of my programs, files, and settings to my new computer? I have many Adobe programs which need to be transferred, including Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, and Audition. Another problem is that my new computer has a 512 Mb SSD, and while I want to make sure that my programs go on that drive, I want my files to go on another drive instead.

You deactivate your Adobe programs on the old computer, probably using menu picks, and then activate them on the new one. My wife did this with Acrobat Pro, which is the only one she has. If transfer works, uninstall on the old computer to avoid notification spam.

My wife copied everything important from her old computer onto the HDD drive (D:) of the new computer.

Our PC Talk forum decided that it's best to leave C:\Users in place, and create a D:\MyStuff folder, or whatever you want to name it, on the HDD. Also you'd have D:\OldStuff from your previous computer.

This strategy seems to work pretty well for my wife. Sometimes old programs in D:\OldStuff\Program_Files still work, if they don't involve the Registry.

She also installed Classic Shell because we both decided she would go bonkers having to deal with the Windows 10 start tiles, and Cortana.

Although Classic Shell is a good program and I used it with preveious versions of Windows, I dropped it completely with Windows 10. I boot to the desktop, If I left click on Start I get a list of my programs. If I right click on start I get a list of all the frequently used functions. I never see the tiles. Everything is as it always was - which is good.

I would advise OP to set up Windows properly, it is very customizable and can suit a wide variety of tastes with no add ons.

Re migration, yeah, programs that don't use the registry might be movable but a safer bet is just to reinstall all the programs that will be used. Ensures a clean installation. Just make sure you unlicense programs that are designed to be unlicensed and the relicensed. Then go into the preferences of each program and make sure that the settings for any user files are pointing to the appropriate locations on D:

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Demon002 • Forum Member • Posts: 72

Re: Best Way to Migrate Programs and Files to New Computer

Hey, you definitely can migrate all programs and files from your Windows 7 to your new Windows 10 PC, and to migrate programs and files to new computer, you can backup hard drive to another hard drive . For you, you want to migrate all programs to your SSD, you can connect your SSD to the old PC as the destination disk. while choose the other hard drive as the destination to store the other files backup image.

(unknown member) • Forum Pro • Posts: 15,443

Re: Best Way to Migrate Programs and Files to New Computer

In reply to edispics • Dec 23, 2016

edispics wrote:

CAcreeks wrote:

She also installed Classic Shell because we both decided she would go bonkers having to deal with the Windows 10 start tiles, and Cortana.

Although Classic Shell is a good program and I used it with preveious versions of Windows, I dropped it completely with Windows 10. I boot to the desktop, If I left click on Start I get a list of my programs. If I right click on start I get a list of all the frequently used functions. I never see the tiles. Everything is as it always was - which is good.

Fully agree. If one doesn't want tiles in the Start Menu, it's a trivial matter to remove them.

In my very brief trial of Windows 8, I installed a Start menu add-on, but I don't see any need for it in Windows 10.

As far as Cortana goes, I have my task bar on the side of the screen, and as it appears as a small, unobtrusive circle icon only, I forget it's even there.

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