# Windows 7 profile copying **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560 "2011-10-13T18:47:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560/1 "2011-10-13T18:47:09Z")
Our server went tits-up last week and as a result, all PCs on the domain have had to be removed and re-added, creating a new user profile for each user when they log in. Moving files from the old profile to the new profile is easy enough to do, but is it possible to also transfer other settings, specifically the quick launch toolbar? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560/2 "2011-10-13T18:57:52Z")
Good luck. I tried moving IE favourites from one profile to another and I had no luck. My Documents, etc. are easy - they are under “User”. So is desktop… You can probably find the email repository files Things like printers, email account setup, etc - good luck. If there’s a useful feature, Microsoft deletes it. They took away the Office toolbar since everyone used it. They hid the useful buttons in Vista and W7. The ability to copy profiles is greyed out in W7 because “it sometimes has problems”. (Really???) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560/3 "2011-10-13T21:16:25Z")
Does [this method](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151) no longer work? The only thing I ever noticed that didn’t stick around was my theme settings. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560/4 "2011-10-13T23:10:48Z")
USMT is Microsoft’s solution for this sort of thing, but personally I’ve found it pretty cumbersome. An app that I’ve used before with great satisfaction is called [Migrate7](http://www.migrate-7.com). The UI is pretty friendly, and you can also automate it to do several thousand profiles at once through a command line. There’s a free Eval version you can download and check out. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560/5 "2011-10-14T03:46:37Z")
The biggest issue with migration tools is that I can no longer log into the old profile, indeed Windows no longer even recognises it as an actual user profile… ---
**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560/6 "2011-10-14T13:22:05Z")
Assuming that you’ve removed/rejoined it to the domain, the original ID associated with that profile is gone, right? So how would you have logged into that profile? ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560/7 "2011-10-14T14:03:59Z")
> [@grimpixie](#): > > The biggest issue with migration tools is that I can no longer log into the old profile, indeed Windows no longer even recognises it as an actual user profile… When i run into things like this I use a PE disk, in my case active@boot. It doesent give a mouse fart about permissions, passwords, hidden folders, locked files, whatever. Copy, paste, moved. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-profile-copying/599560/8 "2011-10-14T19:00:58Z")
> [@grimpixie](#): > > Our server went tits-up last week Next time have at least two servers acting as DCs. And why can’t you just restore the server from your backup?