File and Settings Transfer Wizard
As my staff and I were preparing to take the Microsoft Exam MS70-271, we came across a new Windows XP feature called the [File and Settings Transfer Wizard]. This is affectionately called ‘F.A.S.T.” (see Gary Woodruff article) This nifty wizard will allow us to migrate users’ files and settings from one computer to a new computer.
At our Bitstop service center, Ms Bing Bueno , our support supervisor, had noted that it took a long time to service such clients needs. Specially, where these clients require us to upgrade or migrate their data from an old computer to a new computer.
The [File and Settings Transfer Wizard] allows us to do this quick easily. Although initially, we did have to play around with it for a few hours before we could get it right tho.
A usefull reference would be: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/mgrtfset.mspx
“The wizard is designed for users in a home or small office environment. The wizard is also useful in a corporate network environment for employees who get a new computer and need to migrate their own files and settings without the support of an IT department or Helpdesk.”
The [File and Settings Transfer Wizard] will migrate the following settings on your old computer :
- The original desktop appearance.
So the wallpaper, colors, sounds, and even the location of the taskbar will be preserve when you use this tool. - Your Internet Settings.
How you connect to the internet will also be migrated and preserved. This includes items such as your home page URL, favorites or bookmarks, cookies, security settings, dial-up connections, and proxy settings - Your email settings.
Outlook signature files, views, mail rules, local mail, and contacts are migrated and preserved. The mail clients supported are Outlook® and Outlook Express - Other Settings.
This includes items such as the key repeat rate, whether double-clicking a folder opens it in a new window or the same window, and whether you need to double-click or single-click an item to open it.
Further, it allows you to specify if you want to migrate your files as well, either with or without the settings.
While the [File and Settings Transfer Wizard] will allow you to migrate using either Disk, Direct Cable connection or thru the Network, we would prefer storing the migrated data in a network share location.
The thing to remember is to start the [File and Setting Transfer Wizard] from the NEW computer (destination), rather than from the OLD (original/source). We encountered a lot of problems when we started the process from the OLD computer. Also, for those of you on Windows 2000, the tool is available as a file on the Windows 2000 Resource kit.
But before you use XP’s built-in version, run Windows Update to install a fix that resolves the following problems identified in Microsoft article “Files and Settings are Not Transferred When You Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard“.
Filed under: Computing
