Thursday 8 October 2009

Migrating to a new pc

So I've got a new machine at work. Trying to streamline the process of migrating to it. Installing programs, copying files. The whole malarkey. so far some things have been really easy. Other things not so. Thought I'd log the process for anyone else in the same boat.

What was easy?
This isn't a complete list but the general idea of easy stuff is that which I didn't actually have to reinstall and add all the values back in. Under that list I have

  • Eclipse: The well known software development tool. I just shut it down, copied the relevant files to the new machine. It started up first time. I even went into my android development environment and published the work so I know it's working
  • Zend studio: We've got this too, just did the same as eclipse. What a dream
  • Chrome: A quick google gave me the answers. copied profile data. Installed chrome. I'm now up and running. I even seem to be on the beta version not standard. I can't believe it's remembered that
  • Miranda: Found the profile in documents and settings\application data\miranda. Copied across. Installed miranda. Voila. 
  • Startmenu: sdince I'm reinstalling everything to the same location, and everything's pretty much in its default location. thought I'd copy my start menu folders. Minaly cos I've organised them into folders like social, media, internet etc. Just backed up the orginal and copied across. 
  • Quicklaunch: I use the shortcut links on the taskbar a lot. I judst copied these from documents and settings\application data\internet explorer\quicklaunch.
  • Tweetdeck: Found a tweetdeck migration tip.Ok it couldn't import the passwords. I don't mind that makes it seem more secure. So re registered. Now fine. Easy
What wasn't so easy?
So far the main candidate is Firefox. I copied the profile data. It didn't notice. I used FEBE to copy the extensions and profile. Still didn't work. Profile restore errored. The backup process took a while. Overall not a good experience. I have still yet to get the extensions in. It's not terrible. IE would be the worst but I haven't even bothered migrating. Just doesn't compare so well to chrome. Ok. Tried again using FEBE t create extension backups. Then cleo to create one installer. Seemed to work fine. I have firebug back again yay.

2 comments:

Liam Green-Hughes said...

Hi Colin,

Did you try launching Firefox from a command line with:

firefox -ProfileManager

It should let you choose the profile you wish to use.

Cheers
Liam

Colin said...

Yep I did thanks liam. I created a new profile. Copied all the firefox profile stuff in there. Started with the new profile. Or atleast i thought I did. No joy.

I could have got any of these steps wrong. Cos I don't use firefox much I didn't pursue too far. I'm such a chrome boy now and that was a breeze. I still can't believe it.