New PC

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I have acquired a new desktop PC, Windows 11 home.

I would like to transfer everything from my old Win10 PC to the new PC, but not the OS.

Both are connected to my router with cables - not wifi.

Any recommendations for doing this?

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For documents and smaller files like that use OneDrive. I think you get 5 Gb free and it is like always having a backup also. If you set it up on both machines you can just moved files there and it will sync to both.

If you have large files, you can create a new folder on the Win11 machine, then right click > properties > sharing, and share it on the network. Give read/write access

Then on the other machine you should be able to go to Network and browse to that folder. Then just copy files over across the LAN.

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Can you define everything?

@jtp10181’s suggestions will cover your files like documents, photos, etc.

Do you also intend to transfer the apps running on the old PC to the new one?

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Yes, apps, files, etc. Everything but the operating system.

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You will not be able to transfer apps. You will have to install those from scratch. Transfer data files via thumb drive or onedrive, You could image the whole drive but you would be stuck on the old operating system.

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Unfortunately, it is difficult to transfer apps and programs from one computer to another. If both computers are logged into the same Microsoft account (note, some experts do not recommend this), any apps from the Microsoft store can be loaded automatically from the MS Store. As for other apps, the issue is that the installation of programs writes to specific entries in the system registry. Thus, you will have to load those programs from scratch. However, if you have a reasonably fast Internet connection, you can download most programs in a few minutes and install them will minimal fuss. I built a new computer at the end of last year. I installed the operating system, installed and configured about 75 apps and programs in less than 8 hours.

One of the most time consuming tasks is downloading games. Fortunately, if you have games from the Steam store, you can install Steam online and then copy any existing games from your old computer to your new one. That is a lot faster than downloading gigabytes of data over the Inernet. Games are located in the steamapps/common folder under the primary Steam folder. Please note, you do not have to install Steam to your primary operating system drive if you have more than one drive.

If you run into issues or have specific questions, feel free to send me a private message.

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look on the web at zinstall.

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Here's how I did the same thing

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Thanks for all the suggestions. I will investigate all. At 81 i move slow these days....lol

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This is a helpful utility that can cut down on installation time/effort for some common (and many less common) Windows programs:

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I used to use a Windows Easy Transfer Cable when upgrading client’s computers.

Tossed mine a while ago and can’t remember which one it was, but here is one on Amazon. There are many others.

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Had no idea this existed/worked.

Didn’t we just used to use a crossover cat cable for this a (couple) dozen years ago?

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Yeah and with Gigabit networks now you dont even need a crossover, just hook both to ethernet and share a folder. You can even do it over Wifi if you dont mind waiting slightly longer. Any special hardware/software sold is to make it easier, plug and play, for those not wanting to spend the time on a free solution.

Personally, I use a drive cloning dock I have and just manually copy what I want to an old SSD, then move the dock over to the new machine and copy it all to a folder on the new machine.

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This is a nice utility to help install programs on your new computer. Always a good idea to keep your old computer around for a month or 2 before getting rid of it in case you realize you missed transferring something over.