![]() Using Windows Easy Transfer to transfer your data to a new computer. Table of Contents. Introduction. The types of data can be transferred. Preparing the computers to use Windows Easy Transfer. Using Windows Easy Transfer with a Easy Transfer Cable. Using Windows Easy Transfer over a Network. Using Windows Easy Transfer with Removable Media. ![]() Using Windows Easy Transfer with in- place and clean install upgrades. Conclusion. Introduction When purchasing a new computer one of the most frustrating experiences is moving existing data to the new computer from the older one. In the past when you wanted to transfer data you had to copy the data via a network, store it onto a DVD/CD/Floppy and then copy it back onto the new PC, or physically take the hard drive out of the old machine and install it into the new machine. The main problem using these methods was that you could only move files such as documents, pictures, movies, saved games, etc. E- mail could be moved but was a difficult a process. Moving settings and program configurations, on the other hand, was not possible, except for the experts, and you had to reconfigure each of the applications on the new computer. Windows Vista changes all this with a new bundled application called Windows Easy Transfer that can easily migrate data from Windows XP SP2, Windows 2. SP4, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 operating systems. It is important to note that though you can transfer data from Windows 2. Windows Easy Transfer is a program that comes bundled with Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, and when run, scans our computer for data and settings that you can transfer to your new computer. This migration can be done via a myriad of methods including USB flash drives, DVDs, a network, or by using a new product called a Easy Transfer Cable. What makes this program so powerful and easy to use is that it is wizard driven so you just answer questions, make sure all of your data was properly selected, and then press a button to start the transfer. For this tutorial, we will focus primarily on migrating our data using the Easy Transfer Cable or via a network. We chose these two methods as they are the easiest and quickest methods to transfer your data. Below is a table describing the types of data and settings that can be moved. Data Type. Specifics. When purchasing a new computer one of the most frustrating experiences is moving existing data to the new computer from the older one. In the past when you wanted to. Windows Update error “Windows update cannot currently check for updates because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer” probably occurs. TheINQUIRER publishes daily news, reviews on the latest gadgets and devices, and INQdepth articles for tech buffs and hobbyists. Here’s the scenario: you download the latest and greatest version of the Adobe Flash Player. After it finishes installing, you go to a site featuring Flash content. Files and Folders. Any files found in your My Documents, My Pictures, and Shared Documents folder will be selected to be moved automatically. You can also add other documents that are in other locations. E- mail messages and Settings. E- mail messages, contacts, account settings, and address books from Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Mail, and other programs. Program Settings. Programs that are compatible with Vista will have their settings transferred to the new computer. ![]() In order for this properly to work the program must already be installed on the Vista computer. User Settings. Desktop settings, color settings, screen savers, fonts, Windows options, printers, etc. Internet Settings. Favorites, cookies, and Internet Explorer settings. Pictures, Video, and Music. Music files, playlists, and album are. Pictures (gif, jpg, bmp files) and personal videos. Preparing the computers to use Windows Easy Transfer. Before you use Windows Easy Transfer on your older computer you first need to install the software. ![]() The three methods that can be used to install Windows Easy Transfer on the old computer are: The Windows DVDA CD that comes with an Easy Transfer Cable. Media that we create via the Windows Easy Transfer program in Windows. The two easiest methods are to use the Windows DVD to install the program. To install the software off of the Windows DVD just insert it into the old computer and when the setup menu appears click on the Transfer files and settings from another computer option. If we have autorun disabled then open the DVD and double- click on the setup. The setup screen is shown below. Figure 1. Vista DVD setup screen. ![]() If you purchased a Easy Transfer Cable then insert the CD that came with it into the old machine and install the software. If these two options are not available then follow the instructions below in order to create installation media using the Windows Windows Easy Transfer program. The following instructions should be performed on the new Windows computer. Click on the Start button. Click on the All Programs menu option. Click on Accessories. Click on System tools. Click on the Windows Easy Transfer icon. When Windows Easy Transfer starts, click on the Start a new transfer option. At the next screen you should click on the My New Computer option. When it asks if we have an easy transfer cable, click on the option labeled No, show me more options. In the early 20th century, seeking riches, fur and its medicinal qualities, the people of Europe hunted the Eurasian beaver to near extinction. Clever scientists. These small little tweaks can. At the next screen it will ask if we have Windows Easy Transfer installed on the older computer. We should select the option labeled No, I need to install it now. A new screen will appear asking how we would like to install Windows Easy Transfer on the older computer. Our options are to use a CD, USB Flash Drive, External Hard Disk or shared network folder, Windows Installation Disc or Windows Easy Transfer DVD. Figure 2. Create installation media options. If you select the CD option, Vista will ask for the drive letter that corresponds to a CD or DVD writer. Insert blank media into the writer and select its drive letter in the drop down menu. Then press the Next button to create the installation software on this media. If you select the USB flash Drive option, Vista will ask for the driver letter of our USB flash drive. Select the driver letter and press the Next button to copy the installations files to the drive. This option will be dimmed and unavailable if there is no USB flash drive plugged into the computer. If you select the External hard disk or shared network folder option, Vista will ask for a folder on an external hard drive or a network share where the installation files will be stored. Under this newly created folder will be a autorun. Mig. Wiz. To start the setup open the Mig. Wiz folder and double- click on the Migsetup. If you select the Windows installation disc or Windows Easy Transfer CD option, Vista will assume that one of these two methods were used and ask how we would like to transfer our data. When the installation media has finished being created, use this media to install Windows Easy Transfer on to the older computer. Using Windows Easy Transfer with a Easy Transfer Cable. For many users the best method to transfer data to a new Windows computer is to use a Easy Transfer Cable. An Easy Transfer Cable is a cable that has a USB plug on each end of the cable and gets plugged into both computers. This allows you to transfer data between the two computers using the Windows Easy Transfer program. For the best speed, it is advised that you plug both ends of the cable into a USB 2. The steps necessary to use an Easy Transfer Cable to migrate data to our new computer are outlined below. As you go through these instructions the tutorial will indicate which computer you should be using. Do not plug the Easy Transfer Cable into either computer as of yet! On the new Vista computer: Click on the Start () button. Click on the All Programs menu option. Click on the Accessories menu option. Click on the System tools menu option. Finally click on the Windows Easy Transfer icon to start the program. When the program loads you will be greeted with the welcome screen below. Figure 3. Windows Easy Transfer welcome screen. Click on the Next button to continue to the next screen. You will now be at a screen, shown below, where the program is asking whether this is a new transfer or if you want to continue an old one. Figure 4. Select the transfer type As this is a new transfer click on the Start a new transfer option. At the new screen the program will ask whether the computer we are performing these steps on is the old or new one. Figure 5. Select the computer we are on. As you are doing this step on the new computer, you should click on the My new computer option. You will now see a screen asking if we have an Easy Transfer Cable or need to use another method to transfer the data. Figure 6. Do we have an easy transfer cable? Since these instructions are for using the Easy Transfer cable, select Yes, I have an Easy Transfer Cable. Your computer is now in a ready state waiting for the two computers to be connected via the Easy Transfer Cable. An example of this screen is below. Figure 7. Waiting for the other computer to connect. For now, hold off on inserting the Easy Transfer Cable until you get the older computer set up and ready to go. Let's move on to the steps that you need to do on the old computer. On the older computer: Insert the CD that came with the Easy Transfer Cable into the older computer. When the setup program starts you should click on the Next button. Select I agree and press the Next button. When the program is done installing you should click on the Finish button. On both the older computer and the new Vista computer: Take one end of the Easy Transfer Cable and plug it into the old computer's USB port. If the older computer has a USB 2. Take the other end and plug it into the Vista computer's USB port. On the older computer: When you plug the cable into the older computer a small window will appear asking if you would like to transfer files. Select the Take no action option and then press the OK button. Click on the Start Menu, select All Programs, and finally click on the Windows Easy Transfer icon. When the Windows Easy Transfer welcome screen appears click on the Next button. You will now be at a screen asking if we want to use an Easy Transfer Cable to transfer the files. Figure 8. Select the transfer type. Click on the Use an Easy Transfer Cable (recommended) option. Once we select that option, the Windows Easy Transfer program on both computers will attempt to connect to each other. When they connect, you will see a screen like the following appear on the new Windows machine. Ways to Make Your Computer Blazingly Fast. Over the last several years working in IT for various companies as a Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, and Help Desk professional, I’ve written and learned about many ways to increase the performance of not only my PC, but also of the many PCs on my networks ranging from Windows 9. Windows Vista. In this article, I hope to compile a complete list of all the different methods and tricks that I’ve used to get the last bit of juice out of a slow PC. Whether you are using an old PC or the latest and greatest in hardware, you can still use some of these to make your PC run faster. Note that since I write two blogs, Help Desk Geek and Online Tech Tips, I have previously written about many performance tips already which I will link back to throughout. If I have not written about it, I’ve throw in a link to a relevant article from some of my other favorite sites. This list is in no particular order, just written in the order that I could think of them. There are probably a lot of great tweaks and performance hacks that I’ve missed here, so feel free to chime in with comments! Defragment your computer hard disk using free tools like Smart. Defrag. 2. You should also defragment your Windows pagefile and registry. Clean up hard drive disk space being taken up by temporary files, the recycle bin, hibernation and more. You can also use a tool like Tree. Size to determine what is taking up space on your hard drive. Load up Windows faster by using Startup Delayer, a free program that will speed up the boot time of Windows by delaying the startup of programs. Speaking of startup programs, many of them are useless and can be turned off. Use the MSCONFIG utility to disable startup programs. By default, the size of the paging file is controlled by Windows, which can cause defragmentation. Also, the paging file should be on a different hard drive or partition than the boot partition. Read here on the rules for best paging file performance. In Windows XP and Vista, the Windows Search indexing service is turned on for all local hard drives. Turning off indexing is a simple way to increase performance. If you don’t care about all the fancy visual effects in Windows, you can turn them off by going to Performance Options. You can optimize the Windows boot time using a free program called Bootvis from Microsoft. Clean your registry by removing broken shortcuts, missing shared DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installer references and more. Read about the 1. One of the main reasons why PC’s are slow is because of spyware. There are many programs to remove spyware including Ad- Aware, Giant Antispyware, SUPERAnti. Spyware, and more. If you have a deeper spyware infection that is very hard to remove, you can use Hijack. This to remove spyware. Remove unwanted pre- installed software (aka junk software) from your new PC using PC Decrapifier. Disable unnecessary Windows services, settings, and programs that slow down your computer. Tweak Windows XP and tweak Windows Vista settings using free programs. Disable UAC (User Account Control) in Windows Vista. Tweak your mouse settings so that you can copy and paste faster, scroll faster, navigate quickly while browsing and more. Read here to learn how to tweak your mouse. Delete temporary and unused files on your computer using a free program like CCleaner. It can also fix issues with your registry. Delete your Internet browsing history, temporary Internet files, cookies to free up disk space. Clean out the Windows prefetch folder to improve performance. Disable the XP boot logo to speed up Windows boot time. Reduce the number of fonts that your computer has to load up on startup. Force Windows to unload DLLs from memory to free up RAM. Run DOS programs in separate memory spaces for better performance. Turn off system restore only if you regularly backup your Windows machine using third party software. Move or change the location of your My Documents folder so that it is on a separate partition or hard drive. Turn off default disk performance monitors on Windows XP to increase performance. Speed up boot time by disabling unused ports on your Windows machine. Use Process Lasso to speed up your computer by allowing it to make sure that no one process can completely overtake the CPU. Make icons appear faster while browsing in My Computer by disabling search for network files and printers. Speed up browsing of pictures and videos in Windows Vista by disabling the Vista thumbnails cache. Edit the right- click context menu in Windows XP and Vista and remove unnecessary items to increase display speed. Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to speed up Windows boot time. Speed up your Internet browsing by using an external DNS server such as Open. DNS. 3. 5. Improve Vista performance by using Ready. Boost, a new feature whereby Vista can use the free space on your USB drive as a caching mechanism. If you have a slow Internet connection, you can browse web pages faster using a service called Finch, which converts it into simple text. Use Vista Services Optimizer to disable unnecessary services in Vista safely. Also, check out my list of web accelerators, which are programs that try to prefetch and cache the sites you are going to visit. Speed up Mozilla Firefox by tweaking the configuration settings and by installing an add- on called Faster. Fox. 4. 0. Learn how to build your own computer with the fastest parts and best hardware. Use a program called Tera. Copy to speed up file copying in Windows XP and Vista. Disable automatic Last Access Timestamp to speed up Windows XP. Speed up the Start Menu in Vista by hacking the Menu. Show. Delay key in the registry. Increase the File. System memory cache in Vista to utilize a system with a large amount of RAM. Install more RAM if you are running XP with less than 5. MB or Vista with less than 1 GB of RAM. Shut down XP faster by reducing the wait time to kill hung applications. Make sure that you have selected “Adjust for best performance” on the Performance tab in System Properties. If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you partition your hard drives correctly to maximize performance. Use Altiris software virtualization to install all of your programs into a virtual layer that does not affect the registry or system files. Create and install virtual machines for free and install junk program, games, etc into the virtual machines instead of the host operating system. Check out Sun openx. VM. 5. 1. Do not clear your paging file during shutdown unless it is needed for security purposes. Clearing the paging file slows down shutdown. If your XP or Vista computer is not using NFTS, make sure you convert your FAT disk to the NTFS file system. Update all of your drivers in Windows, including chipset and motherboard drivers to their latest versions. Every once in a while run the built- in Windows Disk Cleanup utility. Enable DMA mode in Windows XP for IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager. Remove unnecessary or old programs from the Add/Remove dialog of the Control Panel. Use a program click memtest. Prime. 95 to check for bad memory on your PC. Determine your BIOS version and check the manufactures website to see if you need to update your BIOS. Every once in a while, clean your mouse, keyboard and computer fans of dust and other buildup. Replace a slow hard drive with a faster 7. RPM drive, SATA drive, or SAS drive. Changing from Master/Slave to Cable Select on your hard drive configuration can significantly decrease your boot time. Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly. If you don’t want to install virus protection, use some of the free online virus scanners. Remove extra toolbars from your Windows taskbar and from your Internet browser. Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar if you’re not really using it for anything important. All those gadgets take up memory and processing power. If you have a SATA drive and you’re running Windows Vista, you can speed up your PC by enabling the advanced write caching features. Learn how to use keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Microsoft Word, Outlook, or create your own keyboard shortcuts. Turn off the Aero visual effects in Windows Vista to increase computer performance. If you are technically savvy and don’t mind taking a few risks, you can try to overclock your processor. Speed up the Send To menu in Explorer by typing “sendto” in the Run dialog box and deleting unnecessary items. Make sure to download all the latest Windows Updates, Service Packs, and hot fixes as they “normally” help your computer work better. Make sure that there are no bad sectors or other errors on your hard drive by using the Scan. Disk orchkdsk utility. If you are not using some of the hardware on your computer, i. If you have never used the Recent Documents feature in Windows, then disable it completely as a long list can affect PC performance. One basic tweak that can help in performance is to disable error reporting in Windows XP7. Disable short filenames if you are using NTFS by running the following command: fsutil behavior set disable. It will speed up the file creation process. If you have lots of files in a single folder, it can slow down Explorer. It’s best to create multiple folders and spread out the files between the folders. If you have files that are generally large, you might want to consider increasing the cluster size on NTFS to 1. K or even 3. 2K instead of 4. K. This will help speed up opening of files. If you have more than one disk in your PC, you can increase performance by moving your paging file to the second drive and formatting the volume using FAT3. NTFS. 8. 0. Turn off unnecessary features in Vista by going to Control Panel, choosing Uninstall a program, and then clicking on Turn Windows features on and off. You can turn off Remote Differential Compression, Tablet PC components, DFS replication service, Windows Fax & Scan, Windows Meeting Space, and lots more. Install a free or commercial anti- virus program to help protect against viruses, etc.
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