Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual

Files and Settings Transfer Wizard

The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard is a new tool included with Windows XP Professional. It’s designed to round up the files and preference settings from one computer—and copy them into the proper places on a new one. For millions of upgrading Windows fans, this little piece of software is worth its weight in gold.

You can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in several ways:

• If you have two computers and you want to transfer files and settings from the old one to the new one, you can run the wizard on the old computer, package its files and settings, and then transfer them to the new computer. You can make the transfer over a network connection, a direct cable connection, or via floppy disks, Zip disks, CD-Rs, or some other kind of disk. The Windows XP CD-ROM includes a version of the wizard that you can run directly from the CD on another Windows computer, even one that’s not running Windows XP. You can also create a wizard disk on your Windows XP computer for use on another system.

• If you have only one computer, you can run the wizard from the Windows XP CD-ROM before you install Windows XP, saving the files and settings to a disk or a second hard drive. Then, after performing a clean install of Windows XP, you can run the wizard again, neatly importing and reinstating your saved files and settings.

Tip

If you’d like more power, versatility, or automation in transferring settings between machines or between installations, you can use a ...