When budget is a problem you must turn to tools and utilities which are free and at the same time they don't make you lose too much time when it comes to migrating user profiles, user datas AND user's applications. I'm talking about small environment, where the client computers are up to 20-25 and each one of those has its own set of application etc and where products like VMware Mirage which can do an in-place upgrade from XP to 7 (or 8) is not an option, because of budget constraints. I was quickly looking for some free alternatives for transferring applications, but there are not many.
So if you budget is a principal problem, then you must pick tool which does the job for free. And you might just stick with what's available as freeware or what's available from Microsoft as a built-in utility. After all you are transitioning users from XP to 7 or Windows 8 – by Microsoft…
You might say there is plenty of utilities out there for the job. I agree, most of them paid and a lot of them are usefull if you are dealing with large infrastructures. Not a small shops. So why not to use Microsoft's utility which is designed for the job? The tool for the job might just comes from Microsoft itself – Windows Easy Transfer. The utility is a free download for Windows XP and it's already baked in Windows 7 or Windows 8.x. However, It does not transfer applications, so you basically have two options here:
Reinstall Application – Reinstalling each of the client PC's with the application that's needed for the business. Usually this option “cleans” some user's personal stuff which is always in the way… -:)
Virtualize applications – you can virtualize single copy of particular application with one of the virtualization packagers I talked about recently here and here, and then copy each of those executables to each user's desktop and create desktop shortcut for the user. Make sure that you comply with the product's licensing agreement though. And there is also paid tool that we know very well – VMware Thinapp. It might be an option as well when the client is on his way to consider for example VDI solution in the future.
The Windows Easy Transfer utility has several options for online or offline migrations of user's files, settings and options:
- Through network
- Through USB thumb drive or USB drive
- Also via cable
The usage is dead easy, but as being said, only application settings are transferred to the new desktop, not the whole application. You can add files, folder via advanced settings to include any user local files and folders.
The application can also map users at the destination computers. Users which might not be domain members or users which are now domain members but were not domain members when they were working at their old computer.
You're prompted to reboot the new desktop after transferring the data and settings. Not every application is supported but most Microsoft applications settings shall be retained.
If your users were using Outlook Express as their default then you'll have to use different utility to transfer their local archived email messages to the new email application as Outlook Express isn't supported in W7 or W8.x platforms.
There is many ways you can work your way through, but most of the time your progression of upgrade of user's workstation with specific applications that's installed on the user's computer and that will need to be reinstalled on the new system. Only solutions like VMware Horizon Mirage which offers layered approach and offer the separation of drivers, application and user's data on each management system.
Mirage has also many different possibilities which eases the pain in case there is a virus corruption or theft of the user's desktop/laptop occurs.
