Transferring programs to new PC

[Boyiee]

So I set up a new computer for my dad so he can get off his old shitty one, and today he comes home with an external hdd (which he didn't need to buy cause I have one) and started trying to backup his old computer onto it so that he could drop everything onto the new one.

Needless to say, that didn't work like he had hoped. It came with Nero on it, and instead of having a bunch of folders it had a bunch of NDA files, and all folders were numbered instead of named (1011, 1012, 1013 etc).

I'm just going to format the HDD, and transfer as much as I can the normal way, without Nero getting involved, however what is the best way to get his programs onto this computer. I'm not talking iTunes, that's easy, I'm talking Quicken and the like. Old programs nonetheless, most likely without CD's. Am I just going to have to torrent or get lucky with downloads and hope hes registered/has licenses or is there a simpler way to do this?

[chiyio]

You basically already know this, but the vast majority of windows programs won't copy over and work, because you won't get all the registry settings.

[hey]

Easiest way by far is to just reinstall everything from the original source. If the original source doesn't exist, you will need to manually copy the registry settings, register .dlls, etc, etc. Depending on the program that can be as simple as opening regedit, ctrl+f the name of the program, and copying it over. For others...good luck.

[guartz]

Why not just image the HD?

[Boyiee]

Would that work?

[Isiolia]

With the right tools and prep, sure.

With a straight up copy? Not really.

[Boyiee]

Guess I'll just have to torrent everything

[Isiolia]

You could try the demo of this, but they do make a point to say that it's an enterprise tool, not for home. Though, that could be more referring to their support, I dunno. ZInstall WinWIn maybe too. Never used either personally.

Most of what's out there for making images for more than one hardware config are intended more for making a fresh image for deployment.

Incidentally, the built-in Mac OS X User Migration tool does all that quite easily (including applications). MS just never bothered to make something nearly as functional for Windows :/

[bungiefan]

Mac OS also has mostly self-contained programs, so installation is as simple as copying the program package over to your drive. Windows programs are generally spread all over the drive, between the program folder, the documents and settings folders, and the Windows folder. You have modular programs on a Mac, and programs growing roots all over the file system on Windows.

I did see one program while I was working at Office Depot that said it could migrate installed applications from XP to another XP or Win7 install, but I can't remember the name.

If your OS on the old machine is Win7, you might be able to just migrate the hard drive to the new build, and simply have to reactivate Win7 again and install the proper drivers. XP chokes when you try to move it to new hardware.

[Isiolia]

Mac OS also has mostly self-contained programs, so installation is as simple as copying the program package over to your drive. Windows programs are generally spread all over the drive, between the program folder, the documents and settings folders, and the Windows folder. You have modular programs on a Mac, and programs growing roots all over the file system on Windows.

Yes and no - applications are implemented as packages, yes, but they also have preferences, registration data, and so on that gets stored elsewhere (and still gets migrated).

The real trick lately is whether or not migrated stuff still works, since Apple basically doesn't give a shit about breaking application support.

[Caiyuo]

You could try the demo of this, but they do make a point to say that it's an enterprise tool, not for home. Though, that could be more referring to their support, I dunno. ZInstall WinWIn maybe too. Never used either personally.

Most of what's out there for making images for more than one hardware config are intended more for making a fresh image for deployment.

Incidentally, the built-in Mac OS X User Migration tool does all that quite easily (including applications). MS just never bothered to make something nearly as functional for Windows :/

It looks like the software points back to http://www.laplink.com/pcmover/ which seems to have support for multiple scenarios. I might actually check this out since I've had some migration conundrums that I've just ignored for awhile. Not sure if this would be ideal for a 32-bit > 64-bit scenario or not.

[Isiolia]

It looks like the software points back to http://www.laplink.com/pcmover/ which seems to have support for multiple scenarios. I might actually check this out since I've had some migration conundrums that I've just ignored for awhile. Not sure if this would be ideal for a 32-bit > 64-bit scenario or not.

True, I found it searching from a different perspective, so I hit the Binary Research page first. I think the Enterprise edition is the only one with a demo either way (though it's not -that- expensive to just buy).