How To Transfer Windows User Profile To Another PC

A Windows person profile encompasses information and folders within the person folder, user-definable settings like visible preferences, explorer settings, registry knowledge, mapped network places, and rather more. 

Lots of people solely want to avoid wasting the information from the person folders. Plenty of strategies work for that, from merely copying the information to backing up with OneDrive. But migrating your complete person profile is a distinct story.

Windows Easy Transfer i.e. MigWiz (which was beforehand used for this) was discontinued beginning with Windows 10. These days, you both need to use the User State Migration Tool or third-party migration instruments.

User State Migration Tool (USMT)

USMT is a migration software utilized by IT professionals for big deployments of Windows methods. To utterly migrate a person profile with USMT, you’ll want the binaries first. The best solution to get them is thru the Windows Assessment Deployment Kit (ADK).

1. Go to the Windows ADK web page and obtain the most recent model.
2. Launch the downloaded installer. On the options web page, you may uncheck all the pieces besides USMT.
3. After putting in USMT, create a folder to retailer the scan state. This is the migration retailer that we’ll use to switch the person profile. Ensure the partition storing this folder isn’t low on area (the shop was nearly 100 GB in my case).
4. Right-click the folder and choose Properties.
5. Go to Sharing > Advanced Sharing and allow the Share this folder possibility.
6. Click on Permissions, Allow Full Control for Everyone, and click on on Ok. Press Ok on the following window as effectively.
7. Switch to the Security tab. Select Users and click on on Edit.
8. Select Users once more, Allow Full Control for this group, and press Ok > Ok.

We’ve put in USMT and made the listing freely accessible over our network. Now, we’ll generate the migration retailer.

1. Press Win + R, kind cmd, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
2. Go to the listing containing the scan state binary. I’ve demonstrated it with the default location beneath. You can even test this folder through Windows Explorer to verify beforehand.
   cd "C:Program Files (x86)Windows Kits10Assessment and Deployment KitUser State Migration Toolamd64"
3. Run the scan state software:
scanstate remoteserverfoldername /i:migapp.xml /i:migdocs.xml /l:scan.log

For the third and last portion, boot up the goal system that you simply need to switch the profile to and observe the steps proven beneath:

1. First, set up USMT from the Windows ADK web page as achieved earlier.
2. Launch an elevated command immediate window and cd to the scan state binary’s listing as achieved earlier.
3. Run the load state software this time to switch the person profile using the migrate retailer we generated earlier:
   loadstate remoteserverfoldername /i:migapp.xml /i:migdocs.xml /l:scan.log

These have been the steps to carry out a primary person migration with USMT. It has a ton of superior choices that offer you a lot higher management over every step of the migration course of. If you’re all for studying more about these, I like to recommend testing Microsoft’s USMT documentation.

On the opposite hand, if USMT didn’t work effectively for you or felt complicated to make use of, you may take a look at the opposite two choices from this record. They’re higher fitted to most customers as they’re very straightforward to make use of whereas additionally being dependable.

ForensIT Transwiz

ForensIT has a few well-liked person migration instruments. They’ve been out for over 20 years and are nonetheless going robust with largely good evaluations. Transwiz is the easier one of many two. To migrate your person profile using Transwiz,

1. Start by downloading the Transwiz Freeware Edition on the unique system.
2. Launch the downloaded MSI file to extract the Transwiz executable. Run Transwiz with this exe file.
3. Select I need to switch knowledge to a different pc.
4. Pick the person profile from the record and press Next.
5. Click on Browse and choose the listing to retailer the switch file. Transwiz compresses the file by default to avoid wasting area, however you may skip this with Fast Pack if you would like.
    
6. Enter a brief password to guard your switch file.

After Transwiz creates the switch file, obtain and run Transwiz on the brand new system. Then, observe the steps proven beneath:

1. Use a USB drive or another methodology you favor to repeat the switch profile to the goal system.
2. Select I’ve knowledge I need to switch to this pc in Transwiz.
3. Browse and choose the switch file from Step 1. Then, enter the password to entry the file.
4. You’ll have a number of choices that you may configure to your liking now:
   • Rename Computer allows you to rename the goal PC to the profile’s authentic system title.
   • Join Domain mechanically joins the PC to the required domain. If you’re not migrating a site person account profile, you may take away the auto-filled domain title and disable the Join Domain possibility.
   • You can set this profile because the default logon, or disable this feature as you favor.
5. If a profile already exists for the required person, you may create a new profile or merge the information with the present profile. If the person account doesn’t exist, you’ll be prompted to create one.
6. Select the person group, enter the account particulars, and press Next to start the switch.

User Profile Wizard (Profwiz)

The User Profile Wizard is ForensIT’s essential migration software. It helps varied superior functionalities like automated migrations, Azure AD migration, domain-to-local migration, distant migration, and so forth. 

You can test the person information should you plan to make use of any such options. For now, I’ll simply carry out a primary person profile switch to show how Profwiz works. To begin,

1. Download the User Profile Wizard from ForensIT and launch the installer.
2. Select the person profile emigrate and press Next. You can even disable or delete the account from the unique system if you would like.
3. Enter the account title on the goal system. You have varied choices right here like becoming a member of a workgroup, domain, Azure AD, or setting the profile because the default logon. In my case, I’m transferring the person knowledge of Jacques to a brand new account named Lisa.
4. After the migration completes, press Next. Your system will restart to completely apply the adjustments.

Make certain to check the brand new profile correctly to make sure all the pieces is in place. Some minor issues (e.g., default file associations) usually break throughout the migration.

Conclusion

User migration is a tough enterprise. In my testing, I couldn’t discover any utterly fool-proof methodology.

Sometimes, the browser bookmarks or sticky notes didn’t copy over. Other occasions, I had errors associated to the SID mapping. Some issues I used to be in a position to patch manually, others I couldn’t do a lot about. 

Having stated that, these are among the best choices accessible to us in the meanwhile. Regardless of which methodology you employ, I like to recommend that you simply don’t take away the person profile and information from the unique system for some time.

In case any issues pop up on the brand new system, the unique can turn out to be useful for troubleshooting.