3 Ways to Move your Programs to New PC

[@avflyguy]

I'm *amazed* that actually worked. PC's are so sensitive for proper placeholders, licenses, etc, etc. I sure would like to know how it did that. I've *never* had luck switching 2 root C: drives

[@PE4Doers]

Usually, the license is tied to the motherboard Make/Model and Serial number.

[@TechSteve]

Wow, I’m surprised that there wasn’t any registries errors, good to know.

[@PE4Doers]

A major reason was that I went from one Intel CUP to another. If I went from Intel to AMD is would likely have given more errors, Thanks for watching :)

[@jedslather]

The smile on your face when it worked was priceless, we all know how that is 😃

[@PE4Doers]

That's exactly right. Although I've built and upgraded (or downgraded) dozens of systems, it's always a good feeling when it works.

[@aii1173]

Just came across your channel and enjoyed this video 🙂 My HP laptop has recently died so am looking to try this method myself. Would it have to be another HP laptop, running Intel g3 (like the old one), or could I go up to a laptop running Intel 7/8? I have windows 7 professional on the drive.

[@PE4Doers]

It really doesn't matter what the CPU is on the replacement. Even if it is a switch from Intel to AMD, or visa versa), since it will download the updates need once you connect online.

[@ChuckBaker]

In the past, I have had trouble swapping drives between two different pc's. I would get a bios error telling me that my swapped drive wasn't the correct drive for the PC. To get around this, I got a 4 TB external drive and loaded all my programs on that, and have the internal drive mostly for the OS. So far that has been the best option.

[@PE4Doers]

Great information Thank you.

[@WoodysAR]

He had the same video card in the old machine and he put it in the new machine that's a big consideration. When I try this later before I clone my drive I'm going to uninstall the video card driver and maybe even the chipset drivers if I can figure out a way and then have them ready on a bootable USB so I can install chip drivers for the new motherboard

[@PE4Doers]

That's a good idea. I have found that I only had problems with the video card drivers when I switched from Nvidia to AMD or vice-versa.

[@zwaller77]

very inforinformative

[@PE4Doers]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the comment

[@Happy-Trails-To-You]

I am upgrading my desktop HP Pavilion to a newer desktop because I want to do video editing. But I love my old computer (it does have an 1TB SSD from a previous upgrade I did) and want to keep all the applications and features and layout. I don't want to lose them and start all over with the new desktop (which will likely be a refurbished HP Envy desktop). I will use my existing monitors and other peripheral devises like scanner, printer. I sure hope it works as well as it did for you. It is worth a try.

[@PE4Doers]

Upgrades are much more error-free these days than they were 30-years ago. Just stay away from a Dell pre-built.

[@Happy-Trails-To-You]

Thx. Never was a dell fan. I like Hps. I just ordered the Envy refurbished from Amazon. It was about 1/2 price of a new one with i7, 32gb RAM, Nvidia graphics card w/6gb. Big upgrade to my 12 year old Pavilion. Worse case, I will reload everything. Thx

[@PE4Doers]

Sounds like a solid plan - Good luck.

[@ut561]

i'm surprised that worked as well as it did. used to that kind of thing in the old dos days.

[@PE4Doers]

Some things have not really changed that much 🙂

[@jonwiersig5800]

Thanks for the video. I am upgrading my motherboard, CPU, and ram from a PC I built in 2010, which seems similar to the swap of PCs in your video. Old system was Asus MB & AMD Athlon II CPU. New is ASRock MB and AMD Ryzen 5 8600G. Do you think Windows 10 will fire up successfully if I just swap old for new?

[@PE4Doers]

If you switch from Intel to AMD CPU's, you sometime have some Drivers issues. If that happens, I sugge4st you remove as many of the drivers as possible and reinstall them.

[@jonwiersig5800]

@@PE4Doers Thanks for the reply. Both CPUs are AMD, so that may help me. Thanks again!

[@PE4Doers]

@@jonwiersig5800 I think it will. Good luck.

[@antoniiocaluso1071]

old Architect here, Mr. PE :-) ...who will try the 1st method. Plz...1. did the MS-license key pop-up appear, after all? 2. Did your CAD-software present problems? I'm buying a better & repurposed Dell w/W11, for my good ol' Dell 7040SSF w/W10. My CAD-software* is my most-concern, not a game :-) I was going to Clone the whole drive, but a simple SSD-swap seems best, as you did. tanx!! * I use ActCAD (as you might consider, too!!) which places some registration files in the C: Documents Folder (and who knows where else). Gulp....I'll check back for your advice. tanx, again!!

[@PE4Doers]

It's possible your CAD Software allowed you to turn off the license on one system, then reactivate on another. I have two different versions of my Video Editing software that allow that. Have you reached out to the vendor yet?

[@danstump3686]

I had serious doubts about this working. So.. I had an old HP with windows 10 pro. Pulled out the WD HD and planted it into a much newer box with a GeForce card. Took it about 2 mins to find the new hardware. I needed to install the nvidia drivers but that was it. didn't have to enter any new product licenses...

[@PE4Doers]

I am glad to hear it worked out well for you 🙂

[@danstump3686]

@@PE4Doers I spoke to soon. I had to call Microsoft to reactivate windows 10. No big deal though. That took all of 10 minutes.

[@PE4Doers]

OK, glad to hear it worked out in the end 😂

[@fazalbaig3135]

Hello Sir I remember that HP PC very well because even I had purchased the same PC 18 months ago.

[@PE4Doers]

Are you still using that PC? I will definitely be turning mine into a Linux box to do some testing of devices that I review both in Windows and Linux.

[@fazalbaig3135]

@@PE4Doers sold it 15 day's ago Looking for a one which supports win 11 probably 8 gen processors. But that PC was awesome especially for office work

[@PE4Doers]

@@fazalbaig3135 Did you make any profit on it?

[@fazalbaig3135]

@@PE4Doers No

[@PE4Doers]

@@fazalbaig3135 Too bad, I thought with the shortage of PC parts you may have done better.

[@mikegraham4255]

Isn't there an easy transfer program built into Windows to pull all of the settings, apps and files?

[@PE4Doers]

There are products you can buy that will make it work better, however even the best of those run into issues when going from one motherboard to another. It is especially difficult when going from Intel to AMD or visa verse.

[@nian60]

Thanks for the info.

[@PE4Doers]

You are very welcome. Is this something you have, or will be trying?

[@nian60]

@@PE4Doers I will probably be looking into shared storage between computers, once I get another computer. Not sure what to choose yet. I will have a look at what is available then. Right now I'm waiting for better prices and availability. My current computer can still do the job OK.

[@PE4Doers]

@@nian60 There are some NAS units that are very affordable that would allow sharing and reasonable security between the two PC's over a simple network.

[@nian60]

@@PE4Doers OK, thanks. :)

[@danieldobrovolskiy3810]

Could u also use a memory unit/card to transfer all your saved data to a new pc?

[@PE4Doers]

That would have a problem as soon as it lost power. Unless you had two separate PC's networked together. Then, it would sill be unable to properly copy the System files, unless you used some sort of imaging software.

[@danieldobrovolskiy3810]

@@PE4Doers lost power? You mean if my electricity lost power as soon I'm transferring all my data to another PC with a memory card?

[@PE4Doers]

@@danieldobrovolskiy3810 I meant when you shut the power down on your memory, it would lose its contents. I apologize if that's not what you meant.

[@360whiplash]

Can you copy and paste a program that's on an external hard drive over to a new PC?

[@PE4Doers]

sometimes that works, but not always. It depends on the size and the type of program it happens to be. You could not get a large one like MS-Word to work that way since it involves a directory full of files and supporting programs. But it would probably work with something like the FreeWare tool Audacity.

[@1tadaastu]

Thats exactly what I hope to accomplish as Id like to move the system drive with all the millions of installed applications from an older windows 10 pro computer to another windows 10 pro pc. To be safe i may clone the drive and use that cloned drive rather than the original if things go wrong. What i am curious is since both PCs had licenses to begin with (at least the old and new pc i have 10 pro licenses), when you installed the old drive into the new PC, and after windows did its bit, did you check to see which of the two licenses it is now using or were active? I am curious if it changed the registry to the new PCs license or kept the old one. I would like to use the new license and leave the old license in the original pc. Everywhere i read people talk about retail vs OEM but that is when you are trying to move W10 licenses. I want to keep them as they are as I do have two licenses. So was curious of what you found. Thanks!

[@PE4Doers]

You still only have one legal license if you change motherboards with a copied storage drive. Did you purchase that Windows-10 license, or did it come with the PC? If you purchased it separately, and you registered it with Microsoft, then you can call them and transfer it over to the new motherboard. The previous motherboard would no longer work (or at least show as fully licensed). Just keep in mind that the only thing you would really miss by not have full license is the ability to customize the system appearance. Everything else should work, unless some other software you added also has licenses, which would require that you follow the instructor for each to transfer from one PC to another.

[@1tadaastu]

​@@PE4Doers Thanks for the reply! So if I understand you correctly though I presently have two separate W10 pro licenses on the two different Dell workstations (yes the official licenses came with the two workstations), if I move the SSD/drive from workstation 1 containing the OS, to workstation 2, i would effectively lose one of the two licenses? A little confused here since i thought the licenses were ' digitally attached' to the motherboards and so moving from workstation 1 to 2, would just change from license 1 (attached to motherboard 1) to license 2 (part of the motherboard 2 setup). Is that not the case? And yes thank you for also explaining what u lose without a license. Doesnt seem much but i would prefer having a license though :-)

[@annmkruse]

Do you have a document that describes this?

[@PE4Doers]

No, not at this time. In a few months I will be able to setup a Website and things like will be possible. Do you have a specific question about any part of what I show? I can answer here through comments, or you can Email to me (look at my 'About' tab on YT).

[@kevindigo22]

I may have missed it, but what OS was on the old and new SSDs? If you are swapping Win10 to Win10, maybe it works. I am going from an old PC running Win10 to a new PC running Win11, tried cloning my old HDD using Win10 onto a new NVMe SSD installed as a second drive. I believe the clone was successful, but the new PC would not boot from the cloned drive that has Win10 on it. At least I now have all of my old computer files available on my new PC using the new second NVMe SSD. But I am now stuck with Method 3, reinstalling everything. I had some old legacy programs installed on my old PC that cannot be reinstalled on Win 10 or 11, so I have lost those programs forever. It is called forced obsolescence...Microsoft does not want you to continue using old legacy programs that you paid for and legally own, they want to force you to buy all new subscriptions. Thanks for nothing, Microsoft!

[@PE4Doers]

You are correct. When you try to retain the older programs you can run into a problem like that. In my case I was going from Windows 10 to Windows 10. You can also have similar problems when upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

[@sylvorus]

what things could go wrong from moving from an intel 2nd gen system to an amd 5600x system? I'm a bit nervous putting all my data at risk

[@PE4Doers]

There are always risks. However that specific move you mention should be rather low on the scale. Do you plan on doing a fresh Windows 10/11 load? If not, the risk will go up somewhat due to drivers and older Apps that may be left installed.

[@sylvorus]

@@PE4Doers I don't plan to reinstall windows 10, What if I just uninstalled the intel drivers and ran sysprep, would that help?

[@sylvorus]

@@PE4Doers though if there is a way where i reinstall windows 10, keep my license and somehow get all of my programs and personal files, I would, but so far I have found nothing.

[@PE4Doers]

@@sylvorus Yes, that is a little trick. Have you looked into one of those $12 licenses? I've heard that they work well (though I have not tried one myself).

[@PE4Doers]

@@sylvorus That my work, however you may still get a licensing problem since you are changing the motherboard, which is what the license is locked into.

[@simonbensasson1485]

Have I missed something? What happened to the other 2 ways?

[@PE4Doers]

Sorry I didn't put them up on the screen with numbers like I did when first option, but if you jump ahead to 8:24 in the video I do at least mention them there. They are more of the 'traditional way' someone would do it that does not want to move hardware around.

[@ThomasEzioBonetti]

Basically you showed 1 method

[@PE4Doers]

OK, I was trying to show some variations. I do appreciate your comment.

[@Billkwando]

This was pretty useless, to be honest. Not JayzTwoCents, to be sure. Nothing about uninstalling the previous hardware or drivers. When I tried the same, windows wouldn't allow me to install any of the mobo drivers because the old ones were still on there and it gave me an error. Typically most users will need to uninstall and/or do a Sysprep in windows.

[@PE4Doers]

Sorry I couldn't serve you better. A full refund of your payment is in the mail.

[@Billkwando]

@@PE4Doers LOL I'll be on the lookout

[@Billkwando]

@@PE4Doers The missing step is to go through Programs and delete any drivers for your sound, network, mobo, bluetooth etc, anything that's specific to the hardware you're leaving behind. Also, going to Device Manager and doing Update Driver on the SATA/IDE controller and doing "let me choose from list" and picking the generic MS controller. Do that for any hardware you can find, and uninstall all the processor stuff as well.

[@PE4Doers]

@@Billkwando I am concerned I violated a federal law by slicing of 1/700 of a penny with some clippers, but I trust you won' rat me out.

[@PE4Doers]

@@Billkwando I just hope the feds don't come after me for shaving off 1/71 of a penny from minted currency to pay you for a view of my video.

[@joejavabop]

Wastes your time with a lot of useless info you don't need

[@PE4Doers]

Sorry you feel that way. Anything in particular stands out to you?

[@alfredchinaman5833]

​@@PE4Doers. Excuse Joe. He is having a bad life

[@PE4Doers]

@@alfredchinaman5833 I am willing hear any and all criticism, since I am trying to be as accurate and helpful as I can.