Windows XP is a venerable operating system that has been around for over a decade. But as technology evolves, so too does the need for new and improved software. That’s why many people are looking to migrate their XP machines to Windows 7. There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the easiest is through Easy Transfer Over the Network. This tool allows you to easily move your files and settings from your XP machine to your new Windows 7 machine. Once you have installed Easy Transfer Over the Network on your XP machine, you can start transferring your files by following these simple steps:
- Connect your XP machine to your new Windows 7 machine using an Ethernet cable.
- Launch Easy Transfer Over the Network on both machines and click “Start Migrating”.
- Select all of the files and folders that you want to transfer and click “Next”.
- On the next screen, select which folders on your XP machine will be used as source locations for your files on Windows 7. You can also choose to copy all of the files in one go or selectively copy specific files or folders. Click “Next” once you have made your selections.
- On the final screen, review your migration settings and click “Finish”. Easy Transfer Over the Network will then begin copying your files between the two machines! ..
Starting with the Windows 7 machine open the Start menu and go to Getting Started and under Tasks click “Transfer your files”.
Click through the welcome screen and choose the method for transferring the data…in this demo we’ll use a network connection.
Next select that this is the new computer.
The next screen click on “I need to install it now”.
Choose a network or external drive to install the latest version of Easy Transfer. If you use a flash drive a freshly formatted one is recommended as it installs Windows Easy Transfer like a portable app which runs directly from the drive.
The next screen prompts you to go to the old computer, start up Easy Transfer and run through the wizard until you get a transfer key.
Now on the XP machine run Easy Transfer from you flash drive.
A progress screen will be displayed while it starts up and produces the transfer key.
Enter in the transfer key from the old machine on the new Windows 7 and hit Next.
It will scan the old computer and determine what can and cannot be transferred over.
When done you can select the general settings and files from all the accounts on the machine.
Click on Advanced to get a detailed explorer view so you can specifically select what to transfer over. When you’ve decided what to transfer then click Save and then transfer it over. The amount of time it takes will depend on how much you’re transferring, speed of the network, etc.
When it is all complete you can view the transfer and program report which shows the files and settings transferred and also what programs are or are not compatible with Windows 7.
To finish the process a Restart is required.
Windows Easy Transfer can be downloaded for XP and Windows 2000 from their site but you might want to use the process shown above as it supplies the latest version of Windows Easy Transfer. We ran into a problem with running the downloaded version which was installed on XP and was not compatible with the Windows 7 version.
Not all programs and settings are going to transfer to your new OS but this definitely makes it easier to transfer compatible program settings, your files, folders and important documents.
