I bought a new computer — how do I move everything? — answered by Engineer Saeed Baatiah
Organise the move into four categories, because each transfers differently: files (external drive or cloud), programs (reinstalled rather than copied — copying breaks them), accounts and passwords (a password manager or a browser export), and email if it is stored locally on the machine rather than on the server. The fourth is the one usually lost, because people assume mail lives in the cloud and it does not always.
Programs do not transfer by copying, and this is the most-attempted failure. A program writes its settings across scattered locations in the system and the Windows registry, and copying its folder alone produces something that will not run, or runs and then breaks. The correct route is reinstalling from the official source — and before that, list what you actually need, since most people find they do not need half of what was installed.
And the category actually lost is locally stored email. If your mail is over IMAP or a cloud service it lives on the server and returns as soon as you add the account. But with POP3, or Outlook using a local data file, the messages exist only on the old machine, and forgetting that file means losing years of correspondence. Check your account type before wiping the old machine, not after.
And the final rule that saves regret: **do not wipe the old machine for at least two weeks**. Keep it as it is until you are sure you are working on the new one with nothing missing — because what is always forgotten is something small: an email signature, a document template, a password saved in a browser, or a file sitting on the desktop rather than in Documents.
- Programs are reinstalled, not copied — copying breaks them
- Check your mail type: local mail will not come across on its own
- Do not wipe the old machine for two weeks — something small is always forgotten