My laptop is starting to act a bit slow and does some things like Word 2010 not wanting to shut down when I exit out of the program... it just hangs up and tries to restart itself... IE9 quits on me for no apparent reason, etc. I keep the system defragmented with Diskkeeper 2011 and run the "FixIt" utilities but there's something else that's going on with the system. It is also slow with DNS 11.5 Pro.

I wanted to get a new laptop and then move all my programs, files, etc. from the old to the new - without having to individually install all my programs again. What would be the easiest way to accomplish that?

Considering the old computer was acting a bit flakey, should I even consider moving programs, files, etc. from the old to the new? Would I just be moving "problems" from the old to the new?

Thanks!

Alan

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DNS 12.0 Pro (KnowBrainer + VoiceComputer  - latest versions) Buddy 7G (2nd gen) USB + Sennheiser MD 431 II - Toshiba Satellite Core™ i7 2670QM laptop 4 cores/8 threads 6 MB L3 cache 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) + MacBook Pro with Retina display (i7 2.7 Ghz); 16 GB RAM; 8 MB of L3 chache; 751 GB Solid State Drive (using Parallels 8 with Boot Camp).

Have you considered a simple Repair of Windows? This can often fix a lot of minor problems and might make all the difference.

There are a number of utilities on the market that are designed to copy your applications from 1 computer to another but note that these applications will not copy NaturallySpeaking, although they can copy your user profiles. You will still need to install NaturallySpeaking on the new computer and if you decide to retire the old computer, uninstall NaturallySpeaking on the retired computer.

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Thanks for the help. In Windows 7, specifically how does one do a repair? 

Best,

Alan 

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DNS 12.0 Pro (KnowBrainer + VoiceComputer  - latest versions) Buddy 7G (2nd gen) USB + Sennheiser MD 431 II - Toshiba Satellite Core™ i7 2670QM laptop 4 cores/8 threads 6 MB L3 cache 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) + MacBook Pro with Retina display (i7 2.7 Ghz); 16 GB RAM; 8 MB of L3 chache; 751 GB Solid State Drive (using Parallels 8 with Boot Camp).

Assuming you have a Windows 7 disk, just insert the disk and choose the Repair option when prompted.

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Try using PCMover professional from LapLink. It is meant to be able to move programmes across (even if you have not got the original disks) so you don't have to put in all the passwords again and reinstall the software. I have ordered a copy and will let you know how it goes. It ships everything across, files, folders, photos, music and programmes. You can select what you want it to move across. It should work on all or at least most programmes according to the reviews and customer reports.

Sounds interesting... Let us know your experiences with this.

 

Best,

Alan

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DNS 12.0 Pro (KnowBrainer + VoiceComputer  - latest versions) Buddy 7G (2nd gen) USB + Sennheiser MD 431 II - Toshiba Satellite Core™ i7 2670QM laptop 4 cores/8 threads 6 MB L3 cache 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) + MacBook Pro with Retina display (i7 2.7 Ghz); 16 GB RAM; 8 MB of L3 chache; 751 GB Solid State Drive (using Parallels 8 with Boot Camp).

Alan,

I bought a Belkin Easy Transfer Cable. It can be had for under $20, and it lived up to its name. It's simply plug and play, and then you just follow the onscreen prompts to say "OK, this is my old computer, this is my new computer, and this is the stuff I want moved." I used it to transition from a Windows XP laptop to a Windows 7 laptop, but it will also work when migrating between computers that run the same OS. It won't transfer your applications, though. You'll have to re-download or re-install those.

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Eric Wright At work: DNS 12 Pro. At home: DNS 11.5 Pro,  KnowBrainer 2011, and Utter Command by RedStart Systems; Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac

 

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If you are using Windows 7, the built-in "Windows Easy Transfer"(search under the Start button) is the only thing I found to give a reasonable solution. I've tried a variety of methods, hoping to find a program that can reliably transfer the entire thing, but never found one. Windows Easy Transfer does not transfer programs, but it does everything else, reliably.

Windows Easy Transfer transfers all your user settings plus your documents logically and easily. You don't need a special cable. It gives you several options, a transfer cable, over the network, and a portable USB device. The procedure is very easy to follow.

Another nifty thing about Windows Easy Transfer is that you can do it on your new computer before you install any program, and it will not give you any error. Instead, it generates an Easy Transfer Report which lists all the programs you need to install on your computer. I found it to be very helpful, because it provides a much simplified workflow which is easy to follow. And you can skip those programs that you no longer need on the new computer, and again it is not going to result in an error. This is because Windows Easy Transfer does not change your registry. The transferred content just sits there on your new computer unless you install a program that uses the transfer settings.

Overall, due to the complexity of my system, it usually takes several days for me to build a complete system from scratch.  Windows Easy Transfer shortens that down to several hours (that's assuming I have all the programs I need at hand, for otherwise it becomes open question how long it's going to take).

In addition, this also gives a reason to have a habit of installing programs in the default folders, because this way when you transfer to a new computer things will find their places automatically. If you get too creative on where to install your programs, it would become burdensome to get everything matching manually during a transfer.

If your new computer uses the same motherboard (very unlikely to be the case) as the old computer, and also you use the same operating system, there does exist a way to transfer everything including programs from the old computer to a new one. You just do a whole system backup on the old computer, and run a system restore on your new computer. But this doesn't work when your computer uses a different motherboard, which is usually the case. You may still want to experiment, but I got so much trouble that I've decided to not even try in the future.

I really appreciate all the wonderful ideas. Thanks to all for helping!

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DNS 12.0 Pro (KnowBrainer + VoiceComputer  - latest versions) Buddy 7G (2nd gen) USB + Sennheiser MD 431 II - Toshiba Satellite Core™ i7 2670QM laptop 4 cores/8 threads 6 MB L3 cache 6 GB DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz) + MacBook Pro with Retina display (i7 2.7 Ghz); 16 GB RAM; 8 MB of L3 chache; 751 GB Solid State Drive (using Parallels 8 with Boot Camp).

You can also use Norton Ghost. I had an issue with it when I "just" did my hard drive to hard drive transfer. I ended up downloading Acronis True Image. It worked like a charm and only took like 8 minutes(depending on how much data you have). You have to install Dragon from fresh but I transfered everything else including all my files, os etc etc. Plus you can use it and set certain files that you want to do incremental backups daily etc etc

 Larry