Windows Easy Transfer was a specialized file-transfer program developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

that allowed users of the

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

to transfer personal files and settings from a

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

running an earlier version of Windows to a computer running a newer version. Windows Easy Transfer was introduced in

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

and included in

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, made available for download via Microsoft ...

, and Windows 8.1. It replaced the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard included with

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

and offered limited migration services for computers running

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...

SP4 and Windows XP SP2. For all versions of Windows, it did not transfer applications—only files and settings. Microsoft incorporated a key technology into the Windows Easy Transfer tool based on its acquisition of Apptimum in 2006. Apptimum's technology complemented the transfer experience offered across multiple Windows operating systems, including Windows Vista, 7, 8.1, and 10. Windows Easy Transfer was discontinued with

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

. From September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2016, Microsoft partnered with Laplink to provide a free download of PCmover Express, which allowed 500 MB of data and settings to be transferred from at least Windows XP to either Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.

History

For Windows 2000, Microsoft developed the User State Migration Tool command line utility that allowed users of

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

, 98, and NT 4.0 to migrate their data and settings to the newer operating system; it did not provide a

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

. An additional migration tool, Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (migwiz.exe) was developed for Windows XP to facilitate the migration of data and settings from Windows 98 and

Windows Me Windows Me (Millennium Edition) is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the successor to Windows 98, and was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000, and t ...

. It could be launched from the Windows XP

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

and presented options to transfer data and settings via a 3.5-inch floppy,

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

, direct cable connection, or a Zip disk. Users could also create a '' wizard disk'' to initiate the migration process when run from earlier operating system. A preliminary version of Windows Easy Transfer was demonstrated at the 2004

Windows Hardware Engineering Conference The Windows Hardware Engineering Community (WinHEC) is a series of technical conferences and workshops, where Microsoft elaborates on its hardware plans for Windows devices. The WinHEC from 1992 to 2008, which stood for Windows Hardware Engineeri ...

Jim Allchin James Edward Allchin (born 1951, Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States) is an American computer scientist, philanthropist and guitarist best known for being a former Microsoft executive. He assisted Microsoft in creating many of the system plat ...

as the successor to the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, scheduled for release in the next client version of Windows, Windows Vista (then codenamed "Longhorn"). As with the final release, this preliminary version could use an optional specialized

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

cable to transfer data between computers. After the

release to manufacturing The software release life cycle is the process of developing, testing, and distributing a software product (e.g., an operating system). It typically consists of several stages, such as pre-alpha, alpha, beta, and release candidate, before the fi ...

of Windows 7, Microsoft backported the version of Windows Easy Transfer in that operating system to Windows XP and Windows Vista as an optional download to facilitate migration to the new operating system.

Items transferred

Windows Easy Transfer could transfer: * Data files and folders For transferring from Windows versions later than Windows 2000: *

User account A user is a person who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Some software products provide services to other systems and have no direct end use ...

s and their settings * Windows and application configuration data stored in files or in the

Windows Registry The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the Microsoft Windows operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry. The kernel, device drivers, services, Security Accounts Manager, a ...

As of Windows 8.1, Easy Transfer can no longer export data to another computer, but can still open files created on an earlier version of Windows. Windows Easy Transfer did not support transferring installed applications. Microsoft planned to release a supplementary ''Windows Easy Transfer Companion'' for transferring certain supported applications from Windows XP to Windows Vista, but it remained as a perpetual beta during development and a final version was never released.

Transfer methods

Several transfer methods could be used: * An Easy Transfer Cable (not supported on Windows 8.1) * A

* A CD recorder or

DVD recorder A DVD recorder is an optical disc recorder that uses optical disc recording technologies to digital recording, digitally record analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signals onto blank writable DVD recordable, D ...

and sufficient number of CDs or DVDs * A

USB flash drive A flash drive (also thumb drive, memory stick, and pen drive/pendrive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and u ...

or an external hard disk drive. In this mode Windows Easy Transfer saves archive files of files and settings on the source machine to a user-specified location, which did not need to be a USB drive; the destination machine was then given access to the archives.

Restrictions

Windows Easy Transfer did not support migration from a

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, a ...

to a

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...

system. Windows Vista and later versions did not support incoming connections over IrDA, serial, or parallel ports, but incoming connections over

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

, HPNA, and

wireless LAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office building ...

were supported. In Windows 8.1, Windows Easy Transfer could only import settings from Windows 7, 8, and RT, but not from Windows Vista or from another Windows 8.1 computer. The only transfer method supported in Windows 8.1 is by a USB flash drive; transfers by an Easy Transfer Cable or a network connection are not supported.

References

{{Windows Components Discontinued Windows components Software features Windows Vista

History

Items transferred

Transfer methods

Restrictions

See also

References