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Easiest way to transfer programs and files to new computer?

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Fishrman

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I have pretty much concluded that I should get a new computer rather than get a better Graphics card. I have been putting it off because I hate the thought of trying to set up a new computer. What is the best way to accomplish this? At one time, I was told you can transfer your files but you can't transfer or copy your programs over to another computer. If that is the case, it seems it would be a hassle, especially in todays world that doesn't seem to rely on CD's for the programs. Thanks for any help.
 
Lisa Horton said:
BobKnDP said:
Lisa Horton said:
Fishrman said:
BobKnDP said:
Lisa Horton said:
I got distracted when I spent ten minutes looking for the 50% off offer that apparently ended within the last three weeks.

I forgot to mention, for a program's preferences to be migrated successfully, the program may need to be installed before running PCMover
Click to expand...
I'm not "Fishrman", but I'm pretty confident that he would prefer getting one of the more advanced (and expensive) versions of PC Mover that can transfer programs.

I wish that I believed that such a utility would work reliably. Maybe I'm too pessimistic.
Click to expand...
Your concern is mine as well!
Click to expand...
I wouldn't want to use PCMover to move programs unless both computers were on the same OS version. In my case they weren't, so fresh installs seemed the safest choice.

I can't speak to reliability as I have only used it this once. It did work flawlessly. I don't know how much stock you put in software reviews but the ones I found were all positive.
Click to expand...
For me, software to only copy files and settings hasn't been worth $30.

The main difficulty I've had is copying the local files and settings for my email client, Thunderbird. (I prefer not to re-download a few GB of email files on every new PC.) I had a simple means of doing it, but I think our friends at Mozilla may have broken that.

I choose to use MS Edge as my browser, and its bookmarks can be transferred by copying a single file. (I don't use the import/export function, as an import puts the favorites in a new subdirectory.)
Click to expand...
To be honest, I don't think that it would be worth $30 to me either, although it was definitely worth $15. People have different ideas about what things are worth so I never assume that the person I'm responding to will have the same lines and standards as me.
I was able to transfer my 20 years of saved emails in Thunderbird fairly easily. Obviously I don't save all of them, but the oldest saved mails are that old. And I was on the latest production release on both machines.
Click to expand...
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
 
Fishrman said:
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's easy. All of the Thunderbird settings together with your saved mail are stored in the Thunderbird "Profile". That's normally stored in something like:

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Thunderbird\

Yuck! I hate AppData.

I normally keep mine in D:\TBIRDDATA\

In any event, you can copy the entire "Profile" tree of folders to the new machine. I have a lot of saved mail so that around 9GB in my case.

Then you install Thunderbird on the new machine and tell it where to find the copied "Profile" using the Profile Manager as documented here:


That's it! Done!
 
XiaoDeer said:
Fishrman said:
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's easy. All of the Thunderbird settings together with your saved mail are stored in the Thunderbird "Profile". That's normally stored in something like:

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Thunderbird\

Yuck! I hate AppData.

I normally keep mine in D:\TBIRDDATA\

In any event, you can copy the entire "Profile" tree of folders to the new machine. I have a lot of saved mail so that around 9GB in my case.

Then you install Thunderbird on the new machine and tell it where to find the copied "Profile" using the Profile Manager as documented here:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-thunderbird-profiles

That's it! Done!
Click to expand...
Will going to export in Tools work? Then download new program on new computer and select import in Tools?
 
I am guessing I should install my 2nd hard drive before attempting to transfer all my stuff over to my new machine? It came with a 2 TB drive and I bought a second 2 tb drive. Thanks.
 
Fishrman said:
XiaoDeer said:
Fishrman said:
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's easy. All of the Thunderbird settings together with your saved mail are stored in the Thunderbird "Profile". That's normally stored in something like:

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Thunderbird\

Yuck! I hate AppData.

I normally keep mine in D:\TBIRDDATA\

In any event, you can copy the entire "Profile" tree of folders to the new machine. I have a lot of saved mail so that around 9GB in my case.

Then you install Thunderbird on the new machine and tell it where to find the copied "Profile" using the Profile Manager as documented here:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-thunderbird-profiles

That's it! Done!
Click to expand...
Will going to export in Tools work? Then download new program on new computer and select import in Tools?
Click to expand...
Just follow the instructions here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer
 
Fishrman said:
XiaoDeer said:
Fishrman said:
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's easy. All of the Thunderbird settings together with your saved mail are stored in the Thunderbird "Profile". That's normally stored in something like:

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Thunderbird\

Yuck! I hate AppData.

I normally keep mine in D:\TBIRDDATA\

In any event, you can copy the entire "Profile" tree of folders to the new machine. I have a lot of saved mail so that around 9GB in my case.

Then you install Thunderbird on the new machine and tell it where to find the copied "Profile" using the Profile Manager as documented here:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-thunderbird-profiles

That's it! Done!
Click to expand...
Will going to export in Tools work? Then download new program on new computer and select import in Tools?
Click to expand...
I have never tried. However, Export/Import procedures are frequently lossy (i.e. drop some data/attributes along the way). An exact duplication of your entire profile will be much safer.
 
XiaoDeer said:
Fishrman said:
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's easy. All of the Thunderbird settings together with your saved mail are stored in the Thunderbird "Profile". That's normally stored in something like:

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Thunderbird\
Click to expand...
Saved mail is typically stored in "Roaming", not "Local":
C:\Users\(YourName)\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles
XiaoDeer said:
Yuck! I hate AppData.

I normally keep mine in D:\TBIRDDATA\

In any event, you can copy the entire "Profile" tree of folders to the new machine. I have a lot of saved mail so that around 9GB in my case.

Then you install Thunderbird on the new machine and tell it where to find the copied "Profile" using the Profile Manager as documented here:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-thunderbird-profiles

That's it! Done!
Click to expand...
 
Fishrman said:
Lisa Horton said:
BobKnDP said:
Lisa Horton said:
Fishrman said:
BobKnDP said:
Lisa Horton said:
I got distracted when I spent ten minutes looking for the 50% off offer that apparently ended within the last three weeks.

I forgot to mention, for a program's preferences to be migrated successfully, the program may need to be installed before running PCMover
Click to expand...
I'm not "Fishrman", but I'm pretty confident that he would prefer getting one of the more advanced (and expensive) versions of PC Mover that can transfer programs.

I wish that I believed that such a utility would work reliably. Maybe I'm too pessimistic.
Click to expand...
Your concern is mine as well!
Click to expand...
I wouldn't want to use PCMover to move programs unless both computers were on the same OS version. In my case they weren't, so fresh installs seemed the safest choice.

I can't speak to reliability as I have only used it this once. It did work flawlessly. I don't know how much stock you put in software reviews but the ones I found were all positive.
Click to expand...
For me, software to only copy files and settings hasn't been worth $30.

The main difficulty I've had is copying the local files and settings for my email client, Thunderbird. (I prefer not to re-download a few GB of email files on every new PC.) I had a simple means of doing it, but I think our friends at Mozilla may have broken that.

I choose to use MS Edge as my browser, and its bookmarks can be transferred by copying a single file. (I don't use the import/export function, as an import puts the favorites in a new subdirectory.)
Click to expand...
To be honest, I don't think that it would be worth $30 to me either, although it was definitely worth $15. People have different ideas about what things are worth so I never assume that the person I'm responding to will have the same lines and standards as me.
I was able to transfer my 20 years of saved emails in Thunderbird fairly easily. Obviously I don't save all of them, but the oldest saved mails are that old. And I was on the latest production release on both machines.
Click to expand...
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
It's been a few weeks and I was so busy setting up everything, so my memory is unclear, but I'm pretty sure I followed the instructions at the link MCLewis provided below, from Mozilla.

I had to install a larger drive in the new computer for my pictures, and I got bigger drives for my external backups, both main and photos. The main backup enclosure was too old to support a 4GB drive and it wasn't immediately clear what the problem was. And PS CS5 wouldn't install. Lots going on.
 
In my "old" machine, I have a 2 tb drive that holds most of my photos. It is the second drive "d". Would there be an issue moving it to my new computer since the new computer is Win 11 and my old is Win 10? My new computer has C drive at 2 tb and D at 2 tb. Thinking it would be drive E for another 2 tbs. and I wouldn't have to transfer all the photos over as they would already be on that drive.
 
XiaoDeer said:
Fishrman said:
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's easy. All of the Thunderbird settings together with your saved mail are stored in the Thunderbird "Profile". That's normally stored in something like:

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Thunderbird\

Yuck! I hate AppData.

I normally keep mine in D:\TBIRDDATA\

In any event, you can copy the entire "Profile" tree of folders to the new machine. I have a lot of saved mail so that around 9GB in my case.

Then you install Thunderbird on the new machine and tell it where to find the copied "Profile" using the Profile Manager as documented here:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-thunderbird-profiles

That's it! Done!
Click to expand...
Aha. I may have been doing something stupid.

I installed Thunderbird on the new machine. It created the profiles.

I had to copy the contents of the old profiles into the new.

I didn't realize that Thunderbird's installer was able to attach existing profiles.

That sounds like a much better technique than mine.

I use IMAP settings on my email accounts. The old emails are retained on the server, as well as locally. If I had to install Thunderbird without using the old profile, all of the files would eventually be restored. But it could take quite a while to download a few gigs of emails.

My main worry is the contacts list.
 
Fishrman said:
In my "old" machine, I have a 2 tb drive that holds most of my photos. It is the second drive "d". Would there be an issue moving it to my new computer since the new computer is Win 11 and my old is Win 10? My new computer has C drive at 2 tb and D at 2 tb. Thinking it would be drive E for another 2 tbs. and I wouldn't have to transfer all the photos over as they would already be on that drive.
Click to expand...
There would be no problem at all.
 
BobKnDP said:
Fishrman said:
In my "old" machine, I have a 2 tb drive that holds most of my photos. It is the second drive "d". Would there be an issue moving it to my new computer since the new computer is Win 11 and my old is Win 10? My new computer has C drive at 2 tb and D at 2 tb. Thinking it would be drive E for another 2 tbs. and I wouldn't have to transfer all the photos over as they would already be on that drive.
Click to expand...
There would be no problem at all.
Click to expand...
So my new machine should be able to read those files even though the old machine was win 10?
 
Fishrman said:
BobKnDP said:
Fishrman said:
In my "old" machine, I have a 2 tb drive that holds most of my photos. It is the second drive "d". Would there be an issue moving it to my new computer since the new computer is Win 11 and my old is Win 10? My new computer has C drive at 2 tb and D at 2 tb. Thinking it would be drive E for another 2 tbs. and I wouldn't have to transfer all the photos over as they would already be on that drive.
Click to expand...
There would be no problem at all.
Click to expand...
So my new machine should be able to read those files even though the old machine was win 10?
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
Fishrman said:
BobKnDP said:
Fishrman said:
In my "old" machine, I have a 2 tb drive that holds most of my photos. It is the second drive "d". Would there be an issue moving it to my new computer since the new computer is Win 11 and my old is Win 10? My new computer has C drive at 2 tb and D at 2 tb. Thinking it would be drive E for another 2 tbs. and I wouldn't have to transfer all the photos over as they would already be on that drive.
Click to expand...
There would be no problem at all.
Click to expand...
So my new machine should be able to read those files even though the old machine was win 10?
Click to expand...
Yes.

The only complexity would be if you were trying to use files from the old OS drive. I've never had multiple boot drives in a PC at the same time, so I can't advise on how to deal with that. (It's not a big deal, I think.)
 
Fishrman said:
Lisa Horton said:
BobKnDP said:
Lisa Horton said:
Fishrman said:
BobKnDP said:
Lisa Horton said:
I got distracted when I spent ten minutes looking for the 50% off offer that apparently ended within the last three weeks.

I forgot to mention, for a program's preferences to be migrated successfully, the program may need to be installed before running PCMover
Click to expand...
I'm not "Fishrman", but I'm pretty confident that he would prefer getting one of the more advanced (and expensive) versions of PC Mover that can transfer programs.

I wish that I believed that such a utility would work reliably. Maybe I'm too pessimistic.
Click to expand...
Your concern is mine as well!
Click to expand...
I wouldn't want to use PCMover to move programs unless both computers were on the same OS version. In my case they weren't, so fresh installs seemed the safest choice.

I can't speak to reliability as I have only used it this once. It did work flawlessly. I don't know how much stock you put in software reviews but the ones I found were all positive.
Click to expand...
For me, software to only copy files and settings hasn't been worth $30.

The main difficulty I've had is copying the local files and settings for my email client, Thunderbird. (I prefer not to re-download a few GB of email files on every new PC.) I had a simple means of doing it, but I think our friends at Mozilla may have broken that.

I choose to use MS Edge as my browser, and its bookmarks can be transferred by copying a single file. (I don't use the import/export function, as an import puts the favorites in a new subdirectory.)
Click to expand...
To be honest, I don't think that it would be worth $30 to me either, although it was definitely worth $15. People have different ideas about what things are worth so I never assume that the person I'm responding to will have the same lines and standards as me.
I was able to transfer my 20 years of saved emails in Thunderbird fairly easily. Obviously I don't save all of them, but the oldest saved mails are that old. And I was on the latest production release on both machines.
Click to expand...
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
I have copied the Thunderbird profile from one machine to another. I have even copied the profile between computers running different different operating systems (I am a cross platform user with Mac, Windows, and Linux PCs). The only time I have run into this not working was when the source computer had a newer version of Thunderbird than the destination computer.

It has been a while since i last did this. Hopefully this still works as long as the old and new machines are on the same release of Thunderbird.
 
Last edited:
jtstanco said:
Fishrman said:
Lisa Horton said:
BobKnDP said:
Lisa Horton said:
Fishrman said:
BobKnDP said:
Lisa Horton said:
I got distracted when I spent ten minutes looking for the 50% off offer that apparently ended within the last three weeks.

I forgot to mention, for a program's preferences to be migrated successfully, the program may need to be installed before running PCMover
Click to expand...
I'm not "Fishrman", but I'm pretty confident that he would prefer getting one of the more advanced (and expensive) versions of PC Mover that can transfer programs.

I wish that I believed that such a utility would work reliably. Maybe I'm too pessimistic.
Click to expand...
Your concern is mine as well!
Click to expand...
I wouldn't want to use PCMover to move programs unless both computers were on the same OS version. In my case they weren't, so fresh installs seemed the safest choice.

I can't speak to reliability as I have only used it this once. It did work flawlessly. I don't know how much stock you put in software reviews but the ones I found were all positive.
Click to expand...
For me, software to only copy files and settings hasn't been worth $30.

The main difficulty I've had is copying the local files and settings for my email client, Thunderbird. (I prefer not to re-download a few GB of email files on every new PC.) I had a simple means of doing it, but I think our friends at Mozilla may have broken that.

I choose to use MS Edge as my browser, and its bookmarks can be transferred by copying a single file. (I don't use the import/export function, as an import puts the favorites in a new subdirectory.)
Click to expand...
To be honest, I don't think that it would be worth $30 to me either, although it was definitely worth $15. People have different ideas about what things are worth so I never assume that the person I'm responding to will have the same lines and standards as me.
I was able to transfer my 20 years of saved emails in Thunderbird fairly easily. Obviously I don't save all of them, but the oldest saved mails are that old. And I was on the latest production release on both machines.
Click to expand...
Since I have Thunderbird too, do you have a recommended method to transfer to new machine?
Click to expand...
I have copied the Thunderbird profile from one machine to another. I have even copied the profile between computers running different different operating systems (I am a cross platform user with Mac, Windows, and Linux PCs). The only time I have run into this not working was when the source computer had a newer version of Thunderbird than the destination computer.

It has been a while since i last did this. Hopefully this still works as long as the old and new machines are on the same release of Thunderbird.
Click to expand...
So, if I was smart---which I am not---I should make sure the Thunderbird on my old computer is up to date with the newest version.
 
To make the transition smoother, here’s a fun plan: First, back up all your important files think of it as packing your favorite things for a new adventure! You can use cloud storage or an external hard drive. Next, jot down a list of your must-have programs so you can quickly reinstall them on your new computer. Many software companies even let you log in and download your purchases again, which is super convenient!
 
I always make a long list of all apps to install, then just download and install all of them. For some, I copy over settings, or they get my settings when I login to the corresponding account. It only takes a few hours, including installing Windows fresh.

There are apps like WinGet and WinGetUI that make it easier to install a bunch of apps, but so far I only use them to see if I need any app updates.

And I sometimes connect the old computer's drive to the new computer, at least temporarily, to manually copy my data and setting files. Or I do it over the LAN with file sharing.
 
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