Windows Easy Transfer for Windows

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

In Windows 7 there was an excellent tool called Windows Easy Transfer (WET) to transfer all your settings and data from one machine to another or to backup data to restore after a computer rebuild.

Well, Microsoft being the helpful company they are decided to remove this from Windows 10!

So, we are fighting back and showing you how to get WET to work on your Windows 10 machine.

Video Guide

We have created a walkthrough video on how easy it is to download and run Windows Easy Transfer on a Windows 10 computer. You can take a look at this, but we also suggest taking a read through our written guide, with screenshots to make this process as easy as possible for you.

Step-by-Step Guide

Below you will find a full set of written instructions with screenshots on how to get Windows Easy Transfer working for you.

First of all, you need to download the Windows Easy Transfer Package available by clicking the link below:

Download Windows Easy Transfer Tool

Windows Easy Transfer for Windows 10

Included in this file are the 32-bit and 64-bit files you will require. Ensure that you use the correct one for your version of Windows 10.

You will need to copy the folder called “migwiz” from within the zip file:

Then you need to paste this folder into the following location on your Windows 10 machine:

C:\Windows\System32

Note that we are assuming that your Windows installation is on the C: drive, if not, change the drive letter.

Then go into the “migwiz” folder and run the following file:

C:\Windows\System32\migwiz\MigSetup.exe

This will then start the setup process and launch the Windows Easy Transfer program.

If you want to use it in the future again, you can then run this file:

C:\Windows\System32\migwiz\MigWiz.exe

This will then launch the Windows Easy Transfer program:

You can then step through the wizard to select the options you want to use for backing up your original machine.

Windows Easy Transfer Wizard

Backing up your data

On the first page of the wizard, you will be given three options for how you want to transfer the data from your old machine to your new machine. These options are:

• An Easy Transfer Cable – it’s unlikely you will have one of these, but if you have, it means that you can transfer the data directly from your old machine to your new machine.
• A network – this is probably one that more IT professionals will use by taking advantage of a corporate network to remotely backup data from an end-users machine to a new machine or during a rebuilding phase.
• An external hard disk or USB flash drive – this is likely to be the most popular option with home users as it allows you to simply plugin in an external USB hard drive and back up to that device. Once the backup phase is complete, you can then plug the external USB device into your new machine and restore that earlier backup.

Once you have made your selection (we are going to go with the external hard disk option for this guide) you will be asked Which computer are you using now?:

Select the option This is my old computer and the program will then go through your computer and check all the user and local profiles during a scan – this can take some time to complete depending on the size of data that you have on the machine:

When it has finished scanning for data, it will present you with the user profiles it can backup and you can then click on the Customize option to pick and choose what you want to actually backup from each profile:

Once you are happy with your selections, click on the Next button. This will then take you to the page where you can enter a password to protect your data:

Then you will have the option of where you want to save the backup. The backup will consist of one single file. Ensure that you give it an appropriate name and click the Save button.

The backup will then start to run on your old machine, saving the backup file to the location that you selected.

Note that this process can take some time depending on factors like the amount of data you are backing up, whether you have an SSD or SATA hard drive, are you using a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 external device. So be patient and wait for the backup to complete.

Restoring the Backup

Once your data has been successfully backup up, you will now want to turn your attention to the restoration of that data to your new machine.

To do this, you run through the same process as the backup to get Windows Easy Transfer running on your new machine. Then instead of selecting the This is my old computer, you select This is my new computer option.

Then browse to where you saved your backup file from your old machine and you will then have the option to select what you want to restore as you did during the backup process.

Complete the wizard and the restore will begin.

Conclusion

That’s it! simple as that to bring back a tool that Microsoft should never have removed from Windows 10! This is an awesome tool but you also need to keep in mind that it is not overly intelligent. It is a big lift and shift type of tool so if you have any viruses or anything like that on your original machine – if you use this tool and accidentally backup a virus file, you will restore this virus file onto your new machine – so be careful with what you are backing up from the start.

Feedback

If you have any questions on this guide, please feel free to leave us a message below using our comments section and we will always endeavour to reply and help you out as soon as we can!

FAQ