Читать книгу Laptops For Dummies - Dan Gookin - Страница 74

I’ll be blunt: It’s not easy to move files over from your old laptop to the new one. In earlier versions of Windows, the process was seamless, thanks to a program called the Windows Migration Wizard. It worked so well that Microsoft decided not to include this program with Windows 10.

Your only alternative is to connect both new and old laptops to the same network and then transfer files manually. This can be avoided for all cloud storage, because files stored on the cloud (such as OneDrive) are automatically synchronized, but the rest of the lot must be copied manually.

Here are the general steps to take to migrate files from your old laptop to the new one:

1 Ensure that both laptops are on and connected to the same network.The network can be wired or wireless. If you need confirmation, refer to Chapter 17 for information on using the Network window. The network must be private, and file and folder sharing must be active. Chapter 17 holds the details.If both laptops see each other in the Network window, you’re good to go.

2 On the old laptop, find your User Profile folder.The user profile is your main account folder. Press Win+E to open a File Explorer window. Into the address bar, type %userprofile% and press Enter.

3 Share your User Profile folder.Right-click the folder (not on a specific file or folder) and choose Properties. In the folder’s Properties dialog box, click the Sharing tab. Click the Advanced Sharing button. Ensure that the item Share This Folder is checked. Click the OK button. Refer to Chapter 17 for info on sharing folders.After the folder on the old laptop is shared, you can access your files and copy them to the new computer.

4 On the new laptop, open the Network window and browse to the shared User Profile folder on the old laptop.Choose Network from a File Explorer window, as shown in Figure 4-4. Open the old laptop’s icon, and then open the shared User Profile folder. You see all your old folders in the window, which is how you access the old laptop’s files.FIGURE 4-4: Finding your User Profile folder.

5 Visit your User Profile folder on the new laptop.Follow the directions for Step 2, although you’re hunting down your User Profile folder on the new laptop, not the old.In the end, you have two open folder windows: one representing files on the old laptop and the second showing files on the new laptop.

6 Copy from one window to the other those files you want to keep.For example, open the Pictures folder from your old laptop, and then select and copy all the files. Open the Pictures folder on your new laptop and paste the files.Repeat this step for each folder on the old laptop. Yes, it’s tedious, but that’s how it’s done. And it doesn’t take that much time, especially considering the alternative methods, crude and ugly.

Alas, these steps don’t copy over your programs. Even the old Migration Wizard didn’t perform this task. See the next section for more information on reinstalling your favorite software.

 The crude-and-ugly alternative is to copy files from the old laptop to a thumb drive or another type of external storage. Then you add the storage to the new laptop and copy over the files, which is an extra, bothersome, painful step.

  Any files you have on cloud storage are copied over as soon as you install the cloud storage software on your new laptop. This storage includes Microsoft’s own OneDrive but also Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud, and other storage. Install those cloud storage programs and you’ll instantly see the files. See Chapter 18 for details.