Moving on A New PC

Getting a brand spanking new PC is fascinating & a pain. It is fascinating because you receive a faster processor, more storage & all the latest stuff although it is outdated as soon as it hits your table. The pain comes with re-installing all of your programs, re-customizing your preferences for programs, applications, & Windows, & transferring knowledge to the new PC.

It can be simplified by using a bootable outside drive or something similar & letting it load everything on the new PC. However, in case you are like me, you most likely had a few issues here & there that could not be found & fixed. So it is better to start with a tidy slate.

I receive a brand spanking new PC at the office & my hard drive crashed on my laptop computer. There is nothing I can do about the laptop computer, but I kept it simple since it is a supporting computer than the main PC. I often used a remote application to connect to my desktop from the laptop computer. Therefore, the laptop computer had few loaded programs & knowledge. I did try to make a backup of my user profile before the crash, but it was having plenty of issues & the backup didn't happen.

As for the work PC, here are the steps I took to prepare for moving to a brand spanking new computer with the limited resources I had.

• Ensured all my work was on the network server. I kept backups of important files on the hard drive as a safety measure after my past experience.
• Deleted everything that I put on the hard drive.
• Made backups of knowledge files such as the password manager's file.
• Took a screen shot of my Windows desktop, so I can rearrange things on the new PC to closely match the way I had things on the elderly PC.
• Used Belarc Advisor to generate a print out of what is loaded on the machine.
• Changed my password to a temporary that is nothing like my original so support could get in when I wasn't at my table.
• Copied the properties of specially-made shortcuts like the I use to lock the computer with click.
• In case you use Outlook, make notes of your preferences & options. Mine didn't get transferred.
• In case you use the Office toolbar (usually on the side or top of the screen), add the programs & folders back in based on the screen shot you took earlier. I could not keep in mind how to adjust the icons in the toolbar, so here's how: right-click on the icon you require to adjust, select Properties, & Adjust Icon.
• Print the list of fonts loaded on your computer in the event you have added additional fonts.