I have had some OS corruption in Windows 8.1 that is causing random reboots when copying files to/from USB and I am hoping that I can perform a clean install and cut out the part where I have to reinstall the many hundreds of installed programs and games. I have seen stuff like this advertised before, but I have always been skeptical of whether they actually work. EDIT: Luckily a combination of DISM and SFC appears to have fixed the corruption. Some of the system files involved with the Background Intelligent Transfer Service had been corrupted and so that (and maybe Readyboost?) was doing something funky with USB drives that was forcing a reboot.
53 Answers
Although there are other answers here.
The short and honest answer is NO.
There is nothing that can reliably transfer applications to a new operating system. Applications are built and configured to work on the operating system they were originally installed on. Many changes are made that are dependent on other components of the OS. For this reason, you can't reliably move an application even if you could figure out how to grab the thousands of files and registry keys.
The primary reason for reinstalling your OS or starting fresh is to have a computer that runs well. If you want your programs to run reliable as well, then you also reinstall them fresh.
There is nothing wrong with backing up data, and transferring settings. There are many programs that do that. But, you should be selective with this as well, because many malicious applications/plugins will move with it. Think of it this way, if Chrome was acting screwy on the old computer, then if you migrate all those settings and plugins to a new computer, it's going to be screwy on the new computer.
If you choose to do a data/settings migration, Microsoft already provides full functionality to do that with their user state migration tool - no 3rd party software needed. Microsoft recommends a 3rd party (paid) application called PCmover. But, there is no reason USMT can't be used even as a one off if you are so inclined to learn how to use it. But, you only do this after reinstalling all the 3rd party software fresh so that it matches the installed software on the old computer.
It may be time consuming to reinstall software, but your patience and effort will be rewarded. You'll also find out what you truly need and what you probably hardly ever touch.
5PC Mover can move application, but your mileage will vary.
Some applications will be fine, and other may not be.
This depend on how you define transfer.
If you want to duplicate the whole PC exactly then cloning to the rescue. IE imaging a classroom full of computers.
It is best to sysprep /generalize /oobe is recommended to regenerate the SID prior to the first clone deployment.
I have done this hundreds of times and cloning works!
Clonezilla and drbl are great options.
- Clone orginal to another hdd as image1
- sysprep /generalize /oobe
Clone to another hdd as image-final
Restore the image on as many computer as you are licensed for.
Note: Sysprep is very finicky, and the tiniest errors can break your image. This is where you jump for joy you made a backup in step 1. Restore backup, and try again. Deleting or renaming any unattend.xml found in the c:\windows\system32\sysprep folder often helps. Starting with Windows 8 with the windows store you may have to uninstall some windows store apps to get sysprep to complete successfully.
One very easy options would be to use SAMSUNG magician, but for that you need an SSD, and EVERYBODY needs and SSD these days, so if you don't have one time to get one!
With this solution you can do it in one operation, it's insanely easy, Samsung Magician does a full back up of everything and then puts it on the new disk.
There are other options as you know, but they are touch and go.
In the future, I recommend you use portable software, no installation required, you can run a large variety of programs with that including Chrome, Firefox, open office etc...
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