User-State Migration

Moving a user's data and settings from an old (Windows 95 or later) system to a new Windows XP system can be tricky. Part of the challenge is gathering all the links, settings, and other data that the user needs and leaving behind the items that the user doesn't need. By automating the process as much as possible, you can attain consistency and efficiency when you perform multiple migrations.

Microsoft provides two tools to help you perform user-state migrations: the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (FSTW) and the User State Migration Tool (USMT). The tools are functionally similar, but FSTW's GUI-driven, user-friendly interface is less suitable for mass migrations than the highly customizable, scriptable USMT.

The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard
IT professionals who need to migrate more than just a few systems probably won't have much use for FSTW. However, if you understand its capabilities, you can use it as a quick solution when you don't have time to prepare USMT. In a nutshell, you execute FSTW on the source (i.e., old) system, save the user state to a network or disk location, then run FSTW again on the target (i.e., new) system to restore the user state. For a comprehensive list of files and settings that FSTW covers, see the Microsoft article "List of Programs Whose Settings Are Migrated When You Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=304903).

To access FSTW, on the XP system, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, then select Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. The FSTW interface asks whether you want to create a Wizard Disk that contains the FSTW software for the source system. Alternatively, on the source system, you can access the FSTW program from the XP installation CD-ROM. To do so, insert the CD-ROM, choose Perform Additional Tasks from the Autorun Windows XP Welcome screen, then select Transfer Files and Settings.

FSTW is easy to use, requires no installation or advanced configuration, and provides a quick method for moving user data and settings. FSTW also gives you some flexibility in gathering files and settings. You can customize the files and settings you want to collect through the interface, but the tool uses all your customizations only once, so you must repeat the customization process on all subsequent migrations. In addition, FSTW lacks USMT's granularity and automation.

The User State Migration Tool
Originally part of the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit, USMT isn't installed by default in XP, but you can install it from the XP Professional Edition installation CD-ROM. If you'll be using USMT as a tool for mass migrations, you should load the USMT files to a network location to facilitate automation. USMT requires no installation; you simply need to copy the XP Pro installation CD-ROM's \ValueAdd\MSFT\USMT folder to a shared location on your network.

When selecting a location, choose one that has plenty of room in which to store the user data and settings that you gather. Under the \USMT folder, create a subfolder named Captured, which will be the target of USMT-gathered files. Although you can target any location for storing USMT data, I recommend—for the sake of simplicity—that you keep all USMT resources together. For the same reason, I recommend sharing the \USMT folder on the server as USMT; this article's batch files reference the USMT share.

USMT Files
After you copy the USMT files and create a share, take a look at the files in the share. You'll notice a mixture of .exe, .dll, and .inf files. You'll also notice a subfolder called \ANSI. The Unicode files that reside in the primary \USMT folder won't run on Windows Me or Windows 9x. The Win9x OSs must run the ANSI version, which resides in the \ANSI subfolder. To ensure that the correct version runs regardless of the OS you launch it from, you can use a cool batch-files trick, which I discuss later.

Scanstate.exe and loadstate.exe are the tools that you'll use for migrations. Scanstate gathers and saves user data and settings from a source system, and Loadstate restores the saved data to the target system. Both executables accept arguments that specify which .inf files to process, where the collected data and settings reside, and how USMT logs operations. Because the arguments passed to the executables can get lengthy, especially if you're using Universal Naming Convention (UNC) pathnames, you should use batch files with predefined arguments to run each tool.