vista on old laptop to w7 on new laptop

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul H
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Paul H

If someone buys a new laptop with w7, can she move her installed
applications from her old vista laptop to her new w7 laptop? TIA, Paul
 
The answer depends upon the Applications.
Any Application bought seperately that she has the CD for can be
installed on the new Laptop...usually after uninstalling from old Laptop.
Any Application that originally came with the old Laptop and was part of the
"install" CD or Recovery Partition installation procedure cannot be
installed
to the new Laptop. If the program came on a seperate installation CD then it
usually
can be installed unless it is specific to the manufacturer of the old
Laptop. A Dell
program most likely will not work on a HP computer.
You cannot just move the installation directory from one Laptop to the next.
There
are Registry entries that are needed to make the program function.

peter
 
If someone buys a new laptop with w7, can she move her installed
applications from her old vista laptop to her new w7 laptop? TIA, Paul
Click to expand...



In general, no, although the reason has nothing to do with Windows
Vista or Windows 7 in particular. Applications have many references
within the registry and elsewhere within \windows, and those
references are needed and can't be transferred. You will have to
reinstall the programs from the original media.

There's an occasional exception to the above, but generally they are
few small and simple programs.
 
Hi, Paul.

Peter and Ken have explained the need for each application's Install routine
to write the proper Registry entries into the new computer. But she can
make the job somewhat easier by using the built-in application Windows Easy
Transfer. (I don't recall where on the Start Menu its original location
was; I have it pinned to my Start Menu.) Run WET on the old computer (yes,
it will run in Vista), saving its output onto a flash drive or other mobile
media. Then plug that media into the new computer and run WET again. This
won't bring forward everything from the old system - and it will not
re-install the applications, but it will ease the transition significantly
for many users.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64)
 
Hi RC,

About a year ago I did buy and use Laplink's PC Mover for 40 bucks and moved
installed applications, data, programs, and apparently registry entries from
an old HP XP Pro to a new Acer Palmtop with XP home. I had applications for
which I had downloaded as freeware from places like CNET and then lost the
install files. Well, "slam, bam, thank you Mam", it worked perfectly, My
precious applications, with the custom choices I made, ran perfectly on the
Acer, so I was able to wipe the old HP laptop and sell it.

If my friend wanted to just upgrade to W7 on her old laptop, her
applications would stay intact. I was hoping a similar ability existed if
the W7 was on a different (new) laptop.

Paul
 
Hi RC,

Typo, fixed below - Netbook, not palmtop!

About a year ago I did buy and use Laplink's PC Mover for 40 bucks and moved
installed applications, data, programs, and apparently registry entries from
an old HP XP Pro to a new Acer netbook with XP home. I had applications for
which I had downloaded as freeware from places like CNET and then lost the
install files. Well, "slam, bam, thank you Mam", it worked perfectly, My
precious applications, with the custom choices I made, ran perfectly on the
Acer, so I was able to wipe the old HP laptop and sell it.

If my friend wanted to just upgrade to W7 on her old laptop, her
applications would stay intact. I was hoping a similar ability existed if
the W7 was on a different (new) laptop.

Paul
 
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