Transferring programs to a new computer (SP1, I th

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I will be getting a new desktop, and need to transfer everything from my existing one running 64 bit Vista to the new one running 32 bit Vista. Will Windows Easy Transfer do this for programs such as Microsoft Office as well as data files?

But I don’t want to transfer Vista 64 bit to my new Vista 32 Bit machine. How do I avoid this?

The Microsoft site just says “files.” ( http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/res…w_vista_pc.mspx%5B/url%5D)

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“Will Windows Easy Transfer do this for programs such as Microsoft Office”
No. You must INSTALL any of your applications on the Vista 32 machine.

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Thanks for the quick answer, John. I figured that would be the case. How do I avoid running afoul of Microsoft’s tracking mechanism that “knows” where these applications were installed? In other words, how do I tell Microsoft that I no longer will use their software on Old CPU X, and I want to install it on New CPU Y?

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When it comes time to Activate the software on the second machine, on-line activation will probably fail. There will be a telephone number that you can call and explain your situation to an MS rep. In almost all cases, the MS rep will activate the software for you. It’s really pretty painless. BTW, I must say that I agree with DaveA ‘s recommendations. You will probably run into less potential problems if you setup the new computer that way.

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Thank you, Dave and John, for your excellent advice. It will be a week or two before this happens; I’ll report back on how I did at that time.

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I have never had that much luck using any of these tools.
I prefer to get the new machine up and running and cleaned, including a imaging program. I mean by clean is the removal of the added OEM stuff that I do not want, including ALL of the trial stuff. I will then burn a image of this clean OS.
Then I will start installing my security programs, including the firewall and AV. The I will install the programs and tools that I will be using.

I burn several different images as different steps are completed. If I run intro major issues I can restore the last image and save all the work of rebuilding from scratch.

Now that I have this machine up and running I normally will really check things out before moving any of my data files. Once I am happy with things (a day or two later) I will copy to a external USB drive, the different files and folders. As for the settings including my email addresses I set up manually as each NEW version of OS has things just a little different and it pays to learn about them. Then I copy the data to the right folders. I have found that one will have a lot less issues if one does NOT copy and replace any of the system folders. I just copy the files and data within those folders, i.e., My Documents, My Pictures folder are not over written. One also needs to remember to get the different email and contacts storage files as well with the Favorites.

Once I have this new machine with data, it is time for another image. Now that is done, it is now time to have good go at using this new machine.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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DaveA,
Hello and greetings from the great “Free State of Tennessee” Question, when you say “burn a image”. What exactly are you doing? Are you using the operating system (OS) or copying some files to disc or some “combo” of both?
Regards Plain Fred

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(Edited by DaveA on 06-May-08 16:36. Revised “Computer Security and Backup “)

I use True Image, but any other disk imaging program will do.
Check out the “Computer Security and Backup ” area for a couple others and discussions about them.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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