From TNPC issue #4.17...

Applications: Here to There Part 1

by T.J. Lee
August 23, 2001

A while back Lee Hudspeth and myself wrote, "The Absolute Beginner's Guide to PC Upgrades", for QUE. As part of that project I wrote an appendix called, "Building a PC from Scratch", and as a result wound up with a new computer. (And in case you're wondering, QUE did not pay for the parts, I had to go out of pocket myself).

It was a very nifty state of the art PC. At the time that is, PCs are quickly outdated which is one of the reasons we wrote a book on upgrading them. Once completed I looked forward to having some free time so that I could start migrating my applications and data from my everyday work machine to this new computer. Many months later I was still using my old work machine and still only thinking about migrating everything to the new system. Face it, moving everything from one computer to another is not a fun job.

When you migrate to a new PC most of your applications will have to be reinstalled from scratch. The disk drive on the new system is much larger than the one on the old computer, and I partitioned it differently on the new machine so I could be better organized. Then, because I was using the new computer as a test environment I created some extra operating system partitions and installed some newer versions of Windows on the new computer. At this point the new system doesn't even have the same version of Windows that is one my old system. Migrating my applications began to look even more daunting than it did before.

I remember the good old days when, if you wanted to move Excel from your C: drive to your D: drive you just copied the appropriate folder (of course we called them directories back then) and you were done. That was when individual programs maintained their own ini files instead of having to put all their eggs in the Windows registry basket. Try that now and, while you can move the files the application won't work after you move it. That's because of all the settings in the registry that are location dependent. Now it's a colossal pain to move applications around.

Now I have had great success moving applications around on a Windows PC using PowerQuest's MagicMover. This indispensable little utility that comes with Partition Magic lets you move applications around and it updates all shortcuts and registry entries for you automatically.

[Editor's Note: PowerQuest is no longer distributing MagicMover. According to PowerQuest, "[Partition Magic version 6] has the new Split Partition feature, [which] replaces the separate MagicMover utility that was included in earlier versions of PartitionMagic. This new Split Partition feature allows you to select files and folders to be separated into a newly created partition. These folders can include applications; however, we recommend that you do NOT attempt to move the Windows, Windows NT, or Program Files directories. Subdirectories may not be moved independently of their parent directories. After using the Split Partition feature, PowerQuest's DriveMapper utility adjusts Windows registry entries and other references to the relocated applications so that there is no need to reinstall to the newly created partition."] You can find PowerQuest here:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?pmagic

I've even had some limited successes moving applications from one computer hard drive to another across a network as long as the same drive/folder structure was used. I just moved the files then did an export of the relevant registry keys from one computer and a registry import on the destination computer. This technique is tricky in that it assumes you can determine the necessary registry keys that have to be moved as well as any files the application may have dumped into the /windows/ or /windows/system/ folders.

Yes, you can always just start reinstalling programs from scratch and that's ultimately what I've usually had to resort to. And yes, I have my applications on CDs here, there, and over yonder. But even assuming you got the original program discs, including discs you burned for all those applications you bought and downloaded over the Internet, there's still the issue of getting all the customizations and preference settings fine-tuned again.

As I was contemplating having to do this migration the hard way Dan mentions a new program that he'd heard about from the folks that gave us System Commander called PC Upgrade Commander.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?pcuc

On the face of it this program seemed to be answer to the upgrade question that's plagued everyone since the invention of the Windows Registry. It purports to be able to copy your applications from one PC to another, and get this, it can do so even if the operating systems on the source and destination computers are different. As long as they are in the Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT4, or Windows 2000 arena you're covered. Okay, I decided to put it to the test... migrating my main applications from my Windows 98SE system to another system running Windows 2000.

Keep in mind that I'm dubious about this working. First, it just sounds too good to be true. There is no way to specify specific applications, or data for that matter, to be transferred. On the source computer side you have a limited choice of transferring everything (which is the default recommended setting), a "limited" transfer which does not transfer any hardware specific keys between the registries, or a "files only" setting which makes no changes to the registries at all.

The limited setting looks good because some applications (like video card utilities) that are hardware related on my old system would make no sense whatsoever to move to my new computer because that system uses completely different hardware. But some reading in the manual reveals that while the registry settings for hardware specific keys are not transferred the programs that depend on those settings are transferred. It's starting to look like Upgrade Commander is an "all or nothing" utility. My unease grows.

Fortunately the two systems I'm working with have the same physical drive and partition set-ups (if you don't count hidden partitions running different operating systems -- which I'm hoping Upgrade Commander doesn't). If you have say a drive E: on the source computer but the destination is lacking such a drive a folder is created on the new system's hard disk to hold the files and the registry is adjusted appropriately on the target system. At least that is what the manual says will happen.

I have other reservations like the issue of drivers. If every file is being transferred (unless a file with the same name already exists on the target or destination PC) there's going to be a lot of deadwood on the new system that could potentially pose a problem. I'm thinking of drivers that are not appropriate for the new system's hardware. Everything on the old system gets transferred so there'll be a number of inappropriate drivers laying about the new computer's hard drive. Then there are utilities like those for the Diamond graphics card on the old system. The new system uses a GeForce card and running a video utility on the wrong card could have interesting effects that I'm not sure I'd enjoy.

Okay, I'm starting to depress myself. But overall I'm still intrigued by the potential such an application as Upgrade Commander has so I'm willing to give it a try. Next issue I'll tell you about my results in trying to migrate from one computer to another using PC Upgrade Commander. If you've tried this program yourself I'd like to hear about how you came out with it.

You can reach T.J. Lee at:
mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com

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