Software to copy software to another computer

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equate975

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 13, 2005
Messages
140
I'm pretty much a firm believer that when you get a new system, get a fresh copy of windows and re-install all your crap. But I have run into a brick wall sort of.

My bosses laptop, has an outrageous amount of programs and stuff on it. It would literally take me weeks to re-install, copy data, change settings, etc to his new laptop.

I have seen software to migrate all your data, programs, settings, etc from your old computer to a new one, but I never had much faith in it.

Is there something that is good and will actually work? One worry I have is if I used some type of software to do this, its going to copy all the problems the old laptop has. The XP install is a good 5 years old and is just painful to use.
 
Any software like this is can be very problematic for the fact that LOTS of software will tie itself to the hardware. Really, does your boss actually use so many apps that it will take weeks to install? Now might be a good time to take an iventory of the software. There's probably a lot of apps that have been updated, are no longer supported, no longer needed etc.

I know that this isn't the answer you're looking for but trying to carry over something like that will take you WEEKS to fix I gaurentee.
 
Yeah I asked him if he needed all that crap, he said that there may be a few that he doesn't but for the most part yeah he needs it all. Guess it looks like I'm gonna get a few hours re-installing all that crap lol...
 
All of his settings should be in his user profile in Application Data and Local Settings\Application Data. You should be able to copy most of them over, and the software they're for will pick up the old settings when you reinstall.
Paragon Drive Backup Pro/Workstation has a feature called Adaptive restore which is supposed to let you restore an image of a PC onto different hardware, but I've never used it so I can't say how well it works.
 
equate975 said:
One worry I have is if I used some type of software to do this, its going to copy all the problems the old laptop has. The XP install is a good 5 years old and is just painful to use.
Click to expand...

Friend, depending upon what's amongst that "outrageous amount of programs and stuff" even reinstalling it all could well contribute to replicating the problems the laptop has. More than likely, the laptop is (in part at least) suffering problems because of the software loaded onto it!
 
Catweazle said:
Friend, depending upon what's amongst that "outrageous amount of programs and stuff" even reinstalling it all could well contribute to replicating the problems the laptop has. More than likely, the laptop is (in part at least) suffering problems because of the software loaded onto it!
Click to expand...

Excellent point. That's why you need to take a look at the software, check for newer versions and just rebuild.
 
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