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So, you finally decided it was time to upgrade your computing experience. You've done the legwork, searched the best sales websites and found the perfect match of "bang for your buck" that will suit your needs. Good for you!
Now you are faced with the daunting task of installing, configuring, and essentially breathing life into your new computer. You are going to have to name your new baby, tell it how to find its way around your network neighborhood, decide which of those pre-installed applications you will actually keep and use, then get your printers and email working again. Those programs you were using on your old PC, they all require your attention, too. You have some work to do.
You might be surprised to find that you cannot simply transfer your programs from your old computer to the new by doing a backup and restore of the data from the old hard drive. It simply does not work that way. Here is another potential surprise for you; the programs you were running on Windows XP may require an update when you move to Windows 7. It is very likely that you now have a 64 bit operating system, where you had a 32 bit operating system on your old computer. To take advantage of that new computing power, you'll want to carefully choose the software you install. That same advice goes for printer drivers and other peripheral device software you will download to get things working.
Your first question should be; "What programs do I have, which versions, and what serial numbers will I need to register them again, where this is required?" This is a job for Belarc Advisor, available from belarc.com. Go to that website, find the free download, get it and run it. It will produce a comprehensive report on everything about your computer, including software installed and license keys for all licensed products. A whole other article could be written about how to use this information, but for the purpose at hand, it is ideal for giving you what you need to proceed. You'll need those license keys later, specifically for Microsoft Office.
Now that you know what programs you had, you have a baseline to help you decide what you need to install on the new computer. You may not want or need everything you had and this may present an opportunity to create a leaner computing environment for yourself. The point of this exercise is to determine which programs you will install, which of those require serial numbers, which require updates, and which ones are completely unnecessary. Later, we will discuss how to get all of those free things, like Adobe Reader, Flash, JAVA, and like items, with an excellent online utility named, Ninite.
Let's walk through these things one at a time. We will look at printers and email first, as they present the best example of how downloads are often better than CD installations. Then, we'll move on to the programs you may have on discs, like Microsoft Office, etc., where saving money by not buying the upgrade is an option. Finally, we will cover the free installations mentioned above.
Assuming you have some name brand printer, like HP, Brother, or Epson; you can simply go to their website (usually support dot manufacturer name dot com - e.g., support.hp.com) and download the correct driver for your model. Just be sure to pay attention to get the correct OS version, likely to be Windows 7 - 64 bit for your new PC.
Email is more of an "it depends" situation. If you are using an online email service, such as Gmail, or Yahoo, or even AOL, your needs are simple. AOL software installation is optional. For the other services, you simply log in to whatever website you were using and carry on. AOL users may want to take this opportunity to change email services, or go ahead and download the latest AOL version and install it on your new computer. If none of these online services provides for your current email needs, you have more work to do. Given that email configuration is not the purpose of this article; you will have to work out those details with your service provider.
If you are using software like Mozilla Thunderbird (free), or Microsoft Office Outlook (part of the MS Office suite), or some other email client software, you will either download that latest version and install it, or reload your MS Office from the CD's you have on hand. This is where that serial number from Belarc Advisor will be helpful, as you'll need your license key for the MS Office installation. This may be a good time to consider purchasing the latest version of MS Office to go with your new computer. In most cases, the programs you need to make your printers work and get your email up and running are available as downloads from their respective makers.
You may have several programs on discs that you need to run on your new computer. At the risk of being redundant, you should check for updates or compatibility before you simply load and install from CD. New Windows 7 computers will run older, 32 bit versions of software, but if you have the option to upgrade, now would be the time to do so. You already know how to pop in the CD and run the installer, so go ahead and do that. You may want to know that there are two directories for program files on your new computer. One is called "Program Files" and one is called, "Program Files (x86)". You may have guessed that the first one holds the newer programs and the other one holds the old 32 bit programs. This information may be useful later, when you need to know where things are.
Now that you have your printers, email, and old programs up and running, you are good to go, right? As soon as you launch one of your programs that used to have data in it, you'll realize you may not be finished with this task. Assuming you have access to the data from your old hard drive, you will have to pull over some folders that contain that missing data. There is a directory on your old drive called Application Data and in it will be other folders, some of which contain the information you'll need. One example would be MS Office, where Word might have some auto text information and where Outlook should have all of your old email, contacts and calendar in a file. You could simply copy that entire Application Data folder onto your new hard drive and then pick the appropriate directory for each of the imports you must do to get your data back in order.
There is a website that will help you to get all of the free stuff you already use, like Adobe Reader, Flash, JAVA, etc. Just go to Ninite.com and click on each of the programs you want to install. Download the Ninite installer and let that utility do the rest of the work for you. Keep that little installer file, as you can use it later to get the latest version of each of the programs you've chosen to install. Details are on the Ninite website, so no further explanation will be given here. Be advised that if your computer came with some anti-virus software pre-installed, you should not install other versions of anti-virus software, as this may create a conflict on your new computer.
To summarize; transferring your programs requires careful consideration and planning. There are a few places where you'll find stumbling blocks, so make sure you have access to your old data files before you get started. You may also need serial numbers or CD keys for programs you plan to reinstall from disc. Along with your program installations, you should plan for the configuration of your printers and email accounts. There are a couple of free utility websites you can use to download utilities to assist with planning and execution; namely, Belarc and Ninite. Armed with this knowledge and with all considerations complete, you are now ready to tackle this task. Experience has shown that a new computer set up project may take as little as two hours or an entire day, depending on the complexity of your needs. With proper planning and execution, you'll have your new computer running all of your programs and you'll feel a sense of pride that goes along with mission accomplished!
Brian Rouley has been providing compassionate care to people using computers for nearly three decades. He is currently the VP of Operations at Rouzell Enterprises, Inc., and the author of numerous articles on how to get things done with your computer. You can learn more about Rouzell by going to Rouzell dot com Brian also teaches computer classes in classroom settings or as a private tutor in clients' homes.
Rouzell Enterprises, Inc. is a California Corporation doing business as MouseHelp and covering the Coachella Valley with support for computer users at all levels of experience.
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