Transfer old programs to Vista

[Jeanne]

I think that you could easily transfer any program that didn't require
registry entries. I've never seen a Windows guarantee a proper transfer but
I wish it were true. I just got a new computer.

Jeanne

Yes, there was. You could move folders with programs in them and Windows
would prompt for proper transfer to ensure the programs would work.

 

[John Barnes]

It is called the Easy Transfer Companion and you can find it here.
Generally installs any program that would install using the upgrade
procedure.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/easytransfer.mspx

 

[Jeanne]

Thanks for the information. Should save a lot of time.

Jeanne

It is called the Easy Transfer Companion and you can find it here.
Generally installs any program that would install using the upgrade
procedure.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/easytransfer.mspx

 

[John Barnes]

Since upgrades are a little unpredictable, make sure you follow the normal
precautions. Remove all low level programs, like virus and backup and
firewalls. Run the advisor program for any other incompatible programs and
uninstall them. That should give you the best chance for a successful
transfer.

Thanks for the information. Should save a lot of time.

Jeanne

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

That's how flip you MS people are, really, Ken

"You're out of luck."

You mean, I'm out of hundreds of dollars. Your obvious intentional plant
obsolescence is disgusting, and you, on your roller coaster of money, just
don't give a damn about people who can hardly come up with all this extra
cash because you decide to blow up your last OS.
Disgraceful.
You owe me my investment in your earlier and still functional technology,
Mr. Blake, and then you owe me an apology.

I owe you *nothing*. I don't work for Microsoft. I simply explained
the way something works. If you don't like that, complain to
Microsoft.

And by the way, the point I made has nothing to do with Vista. It
works exactly the same way in all previous versions of Windows. With
the very rare exception of a tiny self-contained application, Windows
programs can not be moved from one computer to another. That's because
they are not self-contained, but have many entries and pointers to
them, in the registry and elsewhere.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

It is called the Easy Transfer Companion and you can find it here.

This product does not yet exist, *except* as a beta version. Anybody
who wants to try a beta version like this can do so, but it's always
important to understand the associated risks. Beta versions can, and
are even likely to, cause all sorts of problems, worst case including
the loss of everything installed on the drive.

I normally recommend against using beta software at all, except for
those people who enjoy experimentation, and only if you have a spare
non-critical computer to experiment on.

Even when this finally gets released, it remains to be seen how well
it works.

Generally installs any program that would install using the upgrade
procedure.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/easytransfer.mspx

 

[John Barnes]

And Microsoft doesn't often put 'beta' programs in their commercial pages
with none of the usual warnings about not using it for production systems or
your primary home system. It is offered as part of the tools being made
available to make the transition from XP to a new pre-installed Vista
machine more user friendly. Since it performs the same process as is
currently done as part of the Vista upgrade procedure, it probably has much
of the same code and is equally reliable. That is to say more of the
problems here are due to failed upgrades than clean installs. My only
admonitions are the usual, make sure you have the restore disk for your new
computer and do this procedure before investing too much time in installing
new programs. It is designed to be used with WET when first setting up the
new computer.