Transferring From Windows 7 To Windows 10

[Tefler]

We've got a new Windows 10 laptop and need to transfer programs and files from the old Windows 7 machine. Do I need to buy a program to transfer these things? If so, which do people advise? If not, what can we do?

[Tuvok]

You could setup a Dropbox account - transfer the files to there, then from there to the new computer.

Or setup a home network between thw 2 computers.

As for the programs, you can't just copy them, you'll need to install them.

[Buenchico]

I've always found a USB pen drive good enough for transferring files from one computer to another.

As Tuvok indicates though, you can't transfer programs. (If you could, just one person would need to buy, say, Microsoft Office and then allow dozens of his friends to copy it for free). You need to reinstall them allagain from the disks they came on (or via downloads). That can be very, very tedious!

[Buenchico]

Just a thought, Tefler:
You'll probably need to transfer your bookmarks from your choice of browser on the W7 machine to the W10 one. If you're not sure how to do it, tell us which browser you're using and we'll give you instructions. (It's things like that which can add to the stress of changing computers; they're easily forgotten until you suddenly find all of your bookmarks are no longer available!)

[Tefler]

Thanks for the help. Yes, Buenchico, there are Favourites to be transferred. On the Windows 7 computer, it's Firefox - but on the Windows 0 one, it looks like being Edge at the moment.

[Buenchico]

On the W7 machine open Firefox and press Ctrl, Shift and B together.
Click on 'Import &Backup' (at the top of the page).
Select 'Export Bookmarks to HTML'
Save your bookmarks file to a USB pen drive. (Alternatively save it to your hard drive and email it to yourself, so that you can access it from your W10 machine).

On your W10 machine, ensure that you've got the bookmarks file handy (either on the USB stick you saved it to or downloaded from your email onto your hard drive).
Install Firefox ( https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/new/ ), open it, press Ctrl-Shift-B, go to 'Import & Backup' and select 'Import Bookmarks from HTML'. Then navigate to the file location and double-click on it (or single-click and hit 'Open').

If you want to use Edge you'll find that, annoyingly, you can't import them directly from the HTML file that you've saved. (Typical Microsoft - leaving out something which obviously needs to be there!). Instead you need to import them into another browser first (which is why I said that you should install Firefox, even if you've no intention of using it).

Once you've installed Firefox and imported your bookmarks to it, open Edge and click the Menu button (three dots).
Click 'Settings' and then on 'Import Favorites from Another Browser'.
Put a tick next to 'Firefox' and click 'Import'.

[Tefler]

Thanks again, Buenchico. I've got the favourites on to Firefox on the new machine, following your instructions, but when it comes to importing them to Edge, I'm only given the choice of Internet Explorer to import them from. From what you say, Firefox should come up as an option, too. Any thoughts?

[Buenchico]

Sorry, Tefler, I'm lost!

I've stuck with W7, so W10 isn't my area of expertise, but countless websites say that you need to import your bookmarks into Firefox first and then into Edge from there. (e.g. here: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-import-bookmarks-into-edge-browser/ ).

Simply doing a 'cold boot' (i.e. turning your laptop of completely, waiting a minute and then booting up again) might be all that's needed though. That will update the registry, so that Windows (and Edge) can see that Firefox is installed and hopefully let you transfer your bookmarks from it.

Alternatively, give up on Edge and just use Firefox (or another decent browser, such as Avant or Vivaldi) instead!

[Tefler]

Thanks again. What I did, in the end, was to transfer the Favourites to IE, and then from there to Edge - a bit of a palaver, but it worked, and followed the principles that you had outlined.