Microsoft Removes PC-to-PC Migration from Windows 11, Points Users to OneDrive-Based Backup (ghacks.net) 66
Windows 11 offered a PC-to-PC Migration feature that "moved files and settings directly between two PCs over Wi-Fi or Ethernet," reports Ghacks. But according to an updated Microsoft support page, the tool is no longer available.
"Microsoft's support documentation now redirects users to Windows Backup, a tool that relies on OneDrive cloud storage instead of a direct connection between two computers..." Windows Backup works differently. It requires a personal Microsoft account and backs up supported folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music) to OneDrive. Free OneDrive accounts include only 5GB of storage, and Microsoft's own promotional screenshot for Windows Backup shows 4.5GB of that allowance already in use. Years of photos, documents and downloads can exceed the free tier quickly.
Windows Backup does carry some extras. It can remember installed apps, Wi-Fi networks, passwords and some settings to speed up setup on a new device. Apps still have to be reinstalled, and supported files are restored from the cloud.
Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.
"Microsoft's support documentation now redirects users to Windows Backup, a tool that relies on OneDrive cloud storage instead of a direct connection between two computers..." Windows Backup works differently. It requires a personal Microsoft account and backs up supported folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music) to OneDrive. Free OneDrive accounts include only 5GB of storage, and Microsoft's own promotional screenshot for Windows Backup shows 4.5GB of that allowance already in use. Years of photos, documents and downloads can exceed the free tier quickly.
Windows Backup does carry some extras. It can remember installed apps, Wi-Fi networks, passwords and some settings to speed up setup on a new device. Apps still have to be reinstalled, and supported files are restored from the cloud.
Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.
Time to squeeze platform users trapped again (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah, more "permanent rent seeking" by a tech company!
Just like the Frontier AI play... Pay us forever while we listen in and steal your IP.
No Thanks!
Microsoft, why should anyone use and pay forever your invariably slower online backup service until their systems die versus what they can do locally?
Re:Time to squeeze platform users trapped again (Score:5, Funny)
Two words, asshole; Fuck. You.
No Sam Altman you can't have my RAM and don't post AC we can tell it's you.
It's simpler than that, (Score:3, Insightful)
I suspect it's far simpler than that. Go ask everyone you know and see if you actually ever used the PC-to-PC migration feature. Actually I'll raise... I'll wager that most of Slashdot (including yourself) didn't even know this feature existed before today.
It's hardly "rent seeking" when you remove a feature no one used, and replace it with a feature no one can use because of its limitations. It's just an irrelevance spiral. Spinning wheels achieving nothing. It's sort of Microsoft's modus operandi at this
Re: It's simpler than that, (Score:4, Interesting)
This takes a bit with drive sizes these days using the gigabit network adapters you usually see on laptops, if they have a network port at all, but I've got a couple 10gbit network adapters with usb-c connectors for newer machines.
Re: It's simpler than that, (Score:3)
Or just connect the old hard drive to the new computer. There are USB docking stations.
But if you don't use a backup drive or a NAS already you are on your own when your drive crashes.
Re: It's simpler than that, (Score:2)
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I create a complete image of my SSD every six months that I can install on a clean SSD and be exactly in the same state as when I imaged the computer. All settings, installed programs, licenses, cookies, passwords, and data files are captured. It is larger than if I just archived the data files but has the advantage of a single file that can get me back online with one install.
I continue to use Norton/Symantec Ghost mostly because I have been using it for over 30 years and I like the compression and singl
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I moved to the Veeam free agent for this. Install the agent, have a share that only that machine can access on your NAS, and send files over. If one uses deduplication/compression on the backend side, turn it off on in Veeam. Since I use encryption, I have dedupe and compression cranked high. This way, I have image based backups of my data that are easily moved to other media.
Alternatively, Synology and QNAP can do image backups, but then you are tied to their platform.
Re: It's simpler than that, (Score:2)
I was curious since I never heard about it before, so I opened the veeam page and oh boy
It's an unending piss stream of AI buzzwords and AI, AI, AI, get ready for AI, learn about this AI, get some agents in your AI, bro i heard you like AI, etc etc. none of it scanned as useful for anything on a first impression.
Then I decided maybe the secret free software download page most started-as-engineers-but-now-fully-manager-run-company websites have, so I found the backup and recovery page.
The first line in the f
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I usually just do this manually.
Yeah, so do I. But you and I are nerds, and in case it wasn't clear Microsoft hasn't produced an OS for nerds for decades now. IP address? Your dad just got flashbacks to Angelina Jolie with short hair and a cyberpunk aesthetic helping hack the Gibson.
Most users are not remotely capable of doing manual migrations, or rely on the cloud for it, or will forget something.
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Ooooh! I just connect the parallel printer ports with a special cable.
Works every time!
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Yeah I can't think of anyone either. Because it never really worked. I think last time I needed to transfer user data between machines I had to use a third-party shareware program. So embarrassing compared to what Apple has done since MacOS X 10.0 came out.
Linux is also lacking in this kind of utility too. Yes I know you can just rsync on Linux, which I do. Or use a NixOS recipe. But nothing your average person could use.
Re:It's simpler than that, (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does Linux need this? It's not trying to tie you to a single hardware configuration like Windows(*).
With Linux you are completely free to take your old HD and just stick it into your new shiny PC, and everything will just work. Personally though, I use a NAS. My data is accessible from any one of my many PCs over the home network. It's super convenient, and if I need a bigger disk I just buy that one component and add it to the NAS. No need to copy anything.
(*) so they can gouge your for an extra license if you ever decide to replace or upgrade some components.
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Sure. I'll let my nontechie friends and family know just how simple it is to buy a new PC and move their old Linux user account, settings, and documents over with your technique.
Meanwhile Mac users just put their new computer on the desk next to the old one, start it up, and tell it to transfer everything over from the old one. And iPhones too. I hate apple but they got this part right and it keeps their users coming back and upgrading.
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>And iPhones too. I hate apple but they got this part right
When it works. If it doesn't, and after you have been on support with them for 4 hours, they'll tell you "Sorry, it doesn't work." There is no recourse, their stuff is shiny consumer wrapped so you can't really do anything with it to fix issues outside the norm.
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It would not shock me if Apple removed this feature in the coming years, forcing folks to use iCloud. But
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Then they likely get a hammer from the EU.
On Android there is always adb (Score:2)
At least, so far.
>And iPhones too. I hate apple but they got this part right
When it works. If it doesn't, and after you have been on support with them for 4 hours, they'll tell you "Sorry, it doesn't work." There is no recourse, their stuff is shiny consumer wrapped so you can't really do anything with it to fix issues outside the norm.
And even if you don't know how to use adb, you can take to a local shop that does....
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With Linux you are completely free to take your old HD and just stick it into your new shiny PC, and everything will just work.
Do you still have Linux installed on a 512MB HDD from the 90s? Or did you at once point install Linux from scratch? I think you missed what this is for. This does *NOT* transfer your Windows license. This has nothing at all to do with tying Windows to hardware. What this utility did was move your user files and settings from one device to another with a single click, saving users the hassle of backup / restore.
Yeah Linux could use this as well, but I suspect there's no way to make it easily work given the f
It's called Btrfs (Score:2)
With Linux you are completely free to take your old HD and just stick it into your new shiny PC, and everything will just work.
Do you still have Linux installed on a 512MB HDD from the 90s? Or did you at once point install Linux from scratch? I think you missed what this is for. This does *NOT* transfer your Windows license. This has nothing at all to do with tying Windows to hardware. What this utility did was move your user files and settings from one device to another with a single click, saving users the hassle of backup / restore.
Yeah Linux could use this as well, but I suspect there's no way to make it easily work given the fragmentation not just on Linux as a whole, but the significant incompatibilities sometimes introduced between Linux releases of the same distro. (e.g. good luck restoring your startup scrips written in Debian 7 when you installed Debian 8 without significant intervention telling systemd how to execute them).
Same thing happens with major patches and releases of Windows.
Using Arch Linux and similar rolling releases on top of copy-on-write filesystems like Btrfs [readthedocs.io] makes this almost painless when something goes wrong on an update. You just have to rollback the upgrade.
Same thing with backups done with Btrfs snapshots. Put them where ever you want. Pay something for offsite storage or trust in your own local hardware. Btrfs even prevents your "fat fingers' from causing unrecoverable damage.
Linux users can get around
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With Linux you are completely free to take your old HD and just stick it into your new shiny PC, and everything will just work.
Um, no. Having tried this several times I can tell you that it will be hit and miss. The biggest problem will be that the name of your network interface will almost certainly be different. Once upon a time it would always be eth0 and you'd be right. Since systemd 9 times out of 10 it will be some other strange collection of characters depending on how your new motherboard is configured.
The only way out of that is to log in to the console, run "ip a" and note the new name and MAC address - which in my case
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Go ask everyone you know and see if you actually ever used the PC-to-PC migration feature. Actually I'll raise... I'll wager that most of Slashdot (including yourself) didn't even know this feature existed before today.
True. OTOH I don't really bother with backups in any case, I just delay running Windows Update for as long as possible so I'm pretty sure by now multiple copies of my data are safely held in Russia and other places.
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It is a nice feature to have, but I've not used it in decades. Instead, all my data sits on a local NAS, which I can access locally, or via TailScale, and if I have to install a new PC, I just install a generic image of Windows, make sure the PC is on the Internet, and AutoPilot "catches" the install and throws the goodies I like and have licensed on it.
It is sad to see it go, because it does serve a use case, and even though it is a way legacy use case, it is still one that I'm sure are used. I'm sure it
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Nerds have workflows. Users do not. Users just use software. This tool was never targeted at people who know what a NAS is. It was targeted at your dad when he bought his new laptop, in an attempt to prevent him needing to call you to help get his files across from his old one.
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it's a very popular feature on Macintosh computers. I worked for years as a service tech, and did hundreds of migrations. Apple has always made it very easy... I can remember plugging two computers together with a SCSI cable and running the migration assistant! I can still remember the days when windows users had to buy one of our "pc migration kits", that was a box with software and a special cable - USB-A on BOTH ends, and a plastic box in the middle. We sold quite a few of those.
Firewire on the mac w
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It's hardly "rent seeking" when you remove a feature no one used, and replace it with a feature no one can use because of its limitations. It's just an irrelevance spiral. Spinning wheels achieving nothing. It's sort of Microsoft's modus operandi at this point.
No, it's definitely "rent seeking" when a tech company up-sells a paid solution except for minimal use that requires a subscription after they remove an existing feature that would allow users already trapped on the platform to avoid that.
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Your data is needed for training the AI.
Re: Time to squeeze platform users trapped again (Score:2)
Sounds like these users should all just use an OS that *will* do an account transfer from an old windows install, like many Linux distros, or macOS
LMAO (Score:3)
I barely got my machine weaned from OneDrive. I'll just backup myself and FSCK M$...again.
Same here! (Score:2)
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Digressing a bit. If a company wants to make a ton of money, if they made a consumer level tape drive, with tapes containing, say 10-20 TB native, a decent transfer rate, and the drives costing around $1000, tapes costing $10-$20, they would make a mint. People desperately are needing offline storage, and no, the cloud can't do it all.
First, people may not have the bandwidth, or it may be too expensive. Second, there is always the worry of being locked out of your accounts. This doesn't take much... los
Re: Same here! (Score:2)
Still a thing:
https://tapebackup.org/resourc... [tapebackup.org]
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Definitely. It is a growing business, and LTO is doing a good job for the enterprise. However, a $7k drive and $150 or so per cartridge is way expensive, so if someone could mass produce a cheaper tape drive, or an optical drive with more layers, it would fill a niche.
Not bad implementation (Score:2)
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Transferring files is not an OS migration. There's more to a PC than just the files on it. But I suspect no one ever used this tool (or even knew it existed).
Re: Not bad implementation (Score:2)
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Thats.... migration. I don't think anyone assumes "migration" means transferring the OS. That's typically called cloning is it not?
Re: Not bad implementation (Score:2)
Other software (Score:3)
I am sure that other companies offer migration tools in the Shareware and commercial software space.
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Nothing that really works, unfortunately.
The problem with Windows software, is that (like all legacy operating systems) app storage is not strictly managed. Apps can keep data about configuration and history and such, literally anywhere on the hard drive. It's not possible to just copy, say, %APPDATA%\MyApp\* from one computer to another, because MyApp might also store important information in who-knows-where, such as the registry, or even the Program Files folder or random folders in the root of your hard
New type of data exfiltration strategy? (Score:2)
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No surveillance or surreptitious training of AI will happen, for sure.
You can never (Score:5, Insightful)
hate Microsoft enough.
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I do not hate them. I think that would be giving them too much credit.
Nope (Score:2)
I'll stick with INTERLNK / INTERSVR thank you very much.
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DOS FTW! I used parallel laplink cable back then!
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Serial null modem cable at 115K when you feel hard core.
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IIRC, parallel cable was worse because it slowed down the PCs.
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In all seriousness I still do use INTERLNK and INTERSVR occasionally when dealing with DOSWin9X retro computers I own and set up for others. I couldn't imagine using a serial cable over parallel when transferring files. I have not done a formal speed test but I can't imagine a serial connection would even come close to a parallel connection in terms of transfer rate.
The smart thing (Score:2)
Another bonus is, Microsoft gives a PC account, 5GB storage but Windows 11 requires 10 GB, minimum. If you want your files on your new computer, you'll have
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Another bonus is, Microsoft gives a PC account, 5GB storage but Windows 11 requires 10 GB, minimum. If you want your files on your new computer, you'll have to pay for the privilege.
This software neither did what you think it did, nor does its replacement. In no way was the size of the Windows install in any way relevant to the discussion as the OS and Applications were not migrated, just user files and settings.
I guess the smart thing is, for Google to offer the same service.
Google has had this for ... oh wow, 15 years! It was introduced in Ice Cream Sandwich and was also a part of Chromebooks from day one.
I'm amazed at how many Slashdotter out themselves as pointlessly hating without having a clue on this one. I suspected most people wouldn't have
Used to be able to clone the drive (Score:2)
With Windows 10, you could clone a hard drive and put it in a totally different PC (with a similar CPU so same instruction set), and it would work. There was a limit to how many times you could do it, but it was quite convenient. Worked with spinning drives and SSD's.
Now, with NVME's, don't know how that would work, or whether it still works with Windows 11, but it was a good feature.
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This still works just fine, but it's also not at all what this tool did. The purpose of this was to transfer user files and settings to a new device *with a new copy of Windows on it*. E.g. you bought a new laptop and want to within a single click migrate your old laptop to it.
Cloning a drive had a different purpose.
As much as Windows 8 sucked (Score:2)
I was impressed on a different system I had my wallpaper and saved wifi passwords.
Apple makes this so easy. Come on man
Things have come full circle (Score:1)
Beat you to it Microsoft (Score:2)
it's days are numbered
Honestly (Score:2)
Switching systems is largely the time to "clear the attic of junk".
Things of import I already have backing up or they're in the forefront of my mind.
I've upgraded a score of my "main" systems over the years and sure I've lost stuff, but nothing compared to the shit I've lost when systems have actually failed. Nothing ultimately I couldn't live without.
You don't want that trash anyway (Score:2)
The best way to migrate to another computer, is to start fresh. Copy your Documents folder (using a USB key or whatever you like) and reinstall software you want from scratch. Windows has a way of collecting garbage over time, a good house-cleaning occasionally, will go a long way to making the machine more stable, and will likely speed it up.
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The best way to migrate to another computer, is to start fresh. Copy your Documents folder (using a USB key or whatever you like) and reinstall software you want from scratch.
That is literally what this tool you called "trash" did. Pick a lane.
Enshittification (Score:2)
Another Craft app would revolve that.
Jeebus K. Ryste (Score:2)
Meanwhile, MacOS has been using Time Machine, which will back up your files and programs for a couple decades now. Comes with the Operating system. Works.
Use that 4.5 Gigabytes wisely , My Windows friends.