Transfer XP system to Windows 7 system on a new computer

Hi!

Best Practice is to transfer data and reinstall applications.  However, Forensit has an app that will help transfer apps over also.

http://www.forensit.com/downloads.html
Free for personal use also.

This software is great. We have used the User Profile Wizard on many computers.

Good Luck!

mug

Are you intending to dual boot to XP? (in which case is the XP install retail or OEM?)
Windows 7 registry entries differ from XP enough that a straight transfer out of the XP environment into the W7 one is unlikely to work for programs that have registry entries.
Paths to data are also different.

correct me if i am wrong , but you will have to use a program to move the intalled software on the existing xp install. There was a program that Norton used to sell that would do this and there will be others, but  the problem i see is that certain programs will not work under windows 7, no matter what you do,  i have personel experience of programs definatley not working under windows 7 but perfect on xp. The best suugestion is to install the hard drive out of your xp into the new pc as a slave and enable dual booting or use disk commander or similar and make your existing pc dual boot. When you have the windows 7 install in place, then reinstall each piece of software testing it works as you progress,  the data will be available just by directing the program to the location it sits on the hard drive. NOT ALL XP PROGRAMS WILL WORK WITH WINDOWS 7. NOT ALL HARDWARE INCLUDING CERTAIN PRINTERS WILL WORK WITH WINDOWS 7.

muganthony:

The forensit site describes data and settings moves but does not indicate any application transfers.

MASQUERAID:

I am not planning to dual boot. There are programs that are aware of the differences between XP and 7 and automatically take care of this.

ok no dual boot and the programs will definatley work with windows 7. the use a program called laplink pcmover .http://www.laplink.com/pcmover
this will do the job. best of luck

Yes, you are correct.  I failed to see that.

However, because of the difficulty of moving programs (it's going to be dirty no matter what you use), the best thing to do would be to create a virtual copy of your XP machine, reload the computer with Windows 7, and then install Sun VirtualBox or Windows Virtual PC and add your XP machine as virtual.  YIf you use Virtual PC, you can also install RemoteApp and have access to all your old programs on Windows 7.

Create a virtual version of you current computer using Microsoft/Sysinternals Disk2Vhd:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

Windows Virtual PC:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/

Windows RemoteApp:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5433d88-685f-4036-b435-570ff53598cd&displaylang=en

I should have suggested this first.  It would be a best practice and would not dirty your new install.

Thanks.

mug

he is not having a new install. he says

 I am getting a new computer with Windows 7.

therfore he does not need to do anything except use
 http://www.laplink.com/pcmover
this will do the job, no messing about.
best of luck

I only want to make sure that the author knows the best practice for this transfer.  Yes, PC Mover, will probably work.  However, I have read the reviews and there are many great reviews and some failures.  I do not wish to have dovidf purchase and use the software only to find out that it slopped a bunch of extra 'stuff' (registry and startup entries, unnecessary program files, etc) on his computer.

Thanks.

mug

muganthony,

I am aware that re-installation is the preferred path but like most people, I don't have the source cds for some of the programs so it looks like PC-mover is the best bet.

Fabs seems to offer another solution but pc-mover is the best alternative in this case