I am getting a new computer at work, which is a good thing as my current one is “old” (about four years old–yes, an antique). Obviously this is in response to some computer problems I’ve been having and the IT department has apparently deemed it more cost-effective to load a new computer with the appropriate software and send it out, rather than flying a tech out to deal with the problems. (One of the bad things about being in a remote office.
However, the IT people brushed off my concerns about saving all my settings–shortcut keys and the like. But, having recently upgraded my home computer, I know there are many, many things that I have changed about the programs I use at home (Word Perfect and MS Word, for instance) that I have had to try and redo and, in some cases, have not been able to redo or it took a long time. I’m thinking for instance of certain custom macros that I have dragged to my taskbar, default codes that make my life easier, etc.
It occurs to me that all the changes I’ve made must be logged somewhere, maybe sitting around in a file with an odd name, and if so they could be copied onto a disk and recopied onto my new setup.
Am I wrong about this? Would it take just as long to accomplish this as it would to redo all this stuff? Anybody know how it could be done?
For instance I have quite a few macros in Word that do various helpful things like put footnotes into the best format for transferred them into graphics programs that don’t do footnotes, but I don’t actually know where Word stores these macros.
You are correct; your settings are stored somewhere, and it should be possible to copy most settings over to another machine. The problem is that as far as I know, there is no general way of doing that except for just moving the hard-drive over to the new machine (which I’ve successfully done a couple of times with windows 98, but I haven’t tried with newer windows versions).
There is the “migration wizard” that’s installed with Windows XP that can copy some of your settings from another machine. It creates a disk which you have to run from the originating machine (they need to be connected via a - probably local - network) and then copies your settings. As far as I know it mostlycopies basic windows settings (so probably no word macros, but your outlook address book is copied)
XP (and possibly earlier version of Windows) have a ‘files and settings transfer wizard’ buried in the Accesories-System Tools part of the start menu, which will accomplish some of what you want. I’ve not used it myself, but it includes things such as MS Office in its menu, so hopefully it’ll do a lot of what you’re after.
If this is a work computer, some of those settings may actually be stored on the central server and will be downloaded to your new machine when you log on to it. The vast majority are not. Gorilla has hte rest of the story. For non-MS programs, you’re on your own. A little googling for help on your two or three ost-used nonMS programs may pay big dividends.
GorillaMan is correct. The Files & Settings Transfer Wizard will do exactly what you want, and is fairly comprehensive. I’ve used it and was happy with the results. All you need is some fairly hefty storage space accessible by both computers (doesn’t need to be simultaneously), such as a network drive or other external storage, then run the wizard on the old computer. It will generate a file that can be read by the wizard on the new computer and you’re set.
File & Settings Transfer Wizard is pretty good… make sure you use the same version on both PCs. I recently had a migration that I had some trouble with due to this issue… Worked out ok for me, as I had a 2nd PC that could take the transfer. (use the version on an XP CD, on both PCs to be safe)
Otherwise, it’s pretty good about moving just about everything, and can include other programs such as games.
It can be configured to transfer over a network “realtime” (good if you’ve an “old” and a “new” machine, both on the network at the same time)or create a set of files for storage and later transfer (good if you’re reimaging a machine)
Depending on the type of “issue” you are having, your IT guys may not want you to transfer every setting possible.
-Butler