moving software to new PC?

I'm pretty sure a number of people have dealt with this question, so here goes....

Can someone direct me to some software (commercial or shareware) that will move applications installed on one Windows XP system (old PC) to another (new PC)? Windows XP comes with a thing called "Files and Setting Transfer Wizard", but it apparently only transfers a very limited set of applications, very few of which are ones I have. I used to have a program on my older Windows 98 system called (if I remember correctly) "Uninstaller" which could package up an entire application (files and registry entries) so you could move the packaged file to a new system and "install" it on the new system.

Thanks in advance for any help that comes this way.

Such a beast doesn't exist.

The problem is that for something to know what it takes to install an application, it has to monitor the install process. This is typically done by taking a system snapshot before the application is installed, doing the install, taking another system snapshot, then comparing the two to see what changed.

You're going to have to rerun the installs.

-Kevin

Originally posted by troj
Such a beast doesn't exist.

Click to expand...

Such a beast DID exist, and I'm told it worked pretty well. It was called (wait for it) "AlohaBob PC Relocator". Microsoft bought the parent company last year and discontinued the product, in order to incorporate that technology into Vista.

But even if you could still get a copy, doing clean installs from the original media is the best way to go.

Originally posted by Tom Swift
Such a beast DID exist, and I'm told it worked pretty well. It was called (wait for it) "AlohaBob PC Relocator". Microsoft bought the parent company last year and discontinued the product, in order to incorporate that technology into Vista.

But even if you could still get a copy, doing clean installs from the original media is the best way to go.

Click to expand...

Ahhhh... there's the catch. Some of my original media have gotten lost in the clutter of my home office. For example, I haven't been able to run my Microsoft Train Simulator for a couple of years, because the program requires that you load the CD everytime you want to start the program. But that's not one of the critical pieces of software I'm worried about. Somewhere I have the upgrade disk for my Paint Shop software, but I haven't found it yet either. I'm just trying to find a quick way to move the apps like I used to be able to before I pack up the new computer and head off to my new job in Virginia.

man you got train sim! I REALLY want that got the reeal looing controler for it too?

thanx, Ben

I got MS Train Sim at Wally World last year off of their 9.99 software rack. It's the unboxed version, and probably an older version, but, it's worked fine on my XP Home system. And, I hate to admit it, crashing trains is fun

One method I've used is to install the hard drive from the old computer into the new one. Set the new computer's drive as master, the old drive as slave (it will become E: in an XP system). You will need to change the targets of shortcuts from C: to E:. When you try to run a program from the old drive, you will frequently get file not found errors. Copy the offending file from E: to the same folder on C: and try again. Eventually you will get the program to run. You can speed this up by copying the old Windows folder to the new drive, saying NO to overwriting files that are newer. If you have the install disks, it's usually easier to just reinstall it to the new drive.

could an external hard drive be used in some way? they are pretty cheap lately