files and settings transfer wizard!

files and settings transfer wizard is a true bliss for everyone. we will see its working and how to do the same manually ;)

files and settings transfer wizard is a great tool as it copies all your settings and installed programs to your new operating system be it migrating to vista from xp or jumping from xp to xp & even lower versions! you can even select features or programs that you would like to copy to your new operating system. now how this this works: windows puts up all user settings in a user folder that can be found in “ :\Documents and Settings ” folder in the same drive windows is installed and you will find in this all users individual folders and  common folder for common settings and common installations. the application changes and settings that you save are kept in “ Application Data ” folder now there exists  two “ Application Data ” folders one in “ :\Documents and Settings\user name\ ” folder the other in “ :\Documents and Settings\user name\local settings\ ” folder what the use of two ? beats me! anyways the program, uses these two folders + the registry data and the program source to copy all your files and settings to your new os! so if in case u actually forgot to save / backup your settings u know where they are now! & if you are wondering where to download this tool from on Microsoft site u don't need to its there already on your system
Start Menu > Programs > Accessories > System Tools >> Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

Now lets see how to actually do this manually, i am going to  copy my firefox with all its settings and installations (extensions, plug-ins etc etc) to a different system say my office system to my home i don't want to install all my extensions again ;) so copy the main folder in which the application is :\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox ” copy zip do your biding. now copy two more folders the folders with name mozilla in “ :\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data ” and in “ :\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data ” once we have copied all these three folders mail / send / hard transfer to target PC download to the system and we are ready! just use an firefox installer (std firefox installation) on target PC for creating links and data in the registry! then dump replace these three folders in there respective locations! and walla!
the look, feel, everything, is exactly the same!!!

the simple way to transfer firefox is u can copy migrate the user settings from firefox i just used these to demonstrate that u can do the same to any software installation.

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how to copy my installed programs to my new os
how to copy my installed firefox to my new os