Dell Migrate Question (Opinions, Please)

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I am about to move up from a 3-year-old Dell Desktop running Windows 10 Pro on two hard drives (C: 200 GB solid state drive | D: 1,000 GB spinning drive) to a new Dell Desktop running Windows 11 Pro on two hard drives (C: 1,000 GB solid state drive | D: 1,000 GB spinning drive). Should I use Dell Migrate to transfer programs, folders, and files from the old to the new computer? If I use Dell Migrate, will I have to turn off my commercial software with the vendor and start it up again through the vendor on my new Desktop? Opinions Please!

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I don’t know about Dell Migrate, but I can speak about one commercial ‘computer transfer’ product I used about 2 years ago.

That product worked like a charm for anything in the Program Files (x86) folder, but didn’t even attempt to move anything in the Program Files folder…or was it vice-versa?  I was not a happy camper and ended up doing clean installs on the ‘left behind’ programs on my new computer.  As many of them were shareware that I had purchased online, I ended up repurchasing about half of them.  Thankfully, they were all less than $50 each.

On thing I DID do before attempting the transfer was to ‘officially’ uninstall Office 2010 on the old computer.  My assumption was that the Microsoft HQ ‘installation counter’ software would be aware of the uninstallation and allow a reinstallation on a different computer, which it did.

I recently discovered that another paid product I use has an ‘installation counter’ at its HQ that every time it detects a ‘new environment’ (in my case, monthly C: SSD clone then swap to balance wear between several SSDs), it adds one to their counter.  3 strikes and you’re out.  Fortunately, an email to them quickly resolved the problem and taught me to swap SSDs less often (they’re in slide bays).

So, would the commercial software you are using ‘allow’ up to 3 installations?  (copies, from their point of view)  I don’t know.  Some do, some don’t.  Then you get the REALLY DUMB Adobe ‘installation counter’.  I counts every time I start  Photoshop Elements 15 as a ‘new computer’!  So, as it starts the 4th time, I have to log on to their site and ‘erase’ the other 3 computers (all are the same…eg, my desktop) and then things are happy for 3 more starts!  So they allow 4 strikes and you’re out…even with the same computer!  Brilliant!  I should note, however, that I have disabled 2 of their useless ‘automatic’ services and changed the update module to ‘manual’.  I’m guessing that my performance improvements may be the cause of the 4 strikes problem, so I’m willing to put up with the annoyance.

 

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From what I read, Dell Migrate migrates data and settings. It says nothing about installed programs.

--Joe

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Hi @HenryB, I’m going to provide the advice you (as well as I) don’t want to hear.  Take the time to manually install the programs on your Windows 11 machine. The data, invest in at least one USB drive to have a separate data snapshot (I do that even if you have a good backup regiment in place).

Managing a small organization, one that doesn’t have or need Microsoft’s extra licensing to image systems, a fresh install allows you the peace of mind that you’re not bringing anything over that may cause you headaches months / years from now.  It’s been many, many years since I’ve used an automated Windows transfer program and it did not save me any time or money in the long run.

Take care,

IT Manager Geek

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(Ignore this – I just have to post something new to get the freshness to rebuild – will delete)

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Dell Migrate is HORRIBLE!!!! hours and hours of waiting on support in India – sent to the wrong department and hung up on…. gave my info and product numbers 6 times. The last tech we spoke with, FINALLY helped. when I reported that it only migrated the information of one user, our system administrator, he said” Oh, yea, that can happen.” OK MAJOR GLITCH IN THE PRODUCT if youre not surprised that it only worked halfway!!!  It was difficult to purchase, difficult to use and a full on nightmare from start to finish.

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