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A new laptop will soon arrive to replace one that is over 5 years old. I'll then have the problem of migrating everything (software and files) to the new laptop.
Both laptops are Dells, running Windows 10. What would you recommend for doing the migration?
The last time, I recall using Laplink PC Mover Professional and an ethernet cable. Neither laptop has a built-in ethernet port, and I don't want to buy a second adapter, so I'd probably use a USB cable this time. I could use Laplink's software again, but it only works with a USB cable that you have to buy from them at a stupid price. Annoying, so I wanted to see if anyone had other suggestions.
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Take the chance and continue with a fresh and clean laptop and forget the old trash 
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Quote: 0x01AA wrote: continue with a fresh and clean laptop and forget the old trash
I actually second this.
I also followed this path when upgrading - installed stuff on the go, as soon as I noticed I needed it. Not beforehand. At first sight it looks like you'll miss a lot of stuff (like *really* a lot), and are more busy installing than working, but it pays of in the long run.
Now I only have stuff on my laptop that I really need (i.e. no more Visual Studio, no more IIS-sh*t, which saves me tons of gigabytes). If needed, I can always RDP into my main machine (let's face it: how many times did you work in the last couple of years when there was no internet connection? For me: almost none. There you go).
I now enjoy a lightweight laptop. Until the next upgrade, that is 
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I'll strongly second the second. It's amazing how much stuff from your old machine you think you'll need, but you won't. At least, that's been my experience.
The only thing I'd add would be to make sure you have a full backup of all personal files from the old laptop. Personally, I'm comfortable with them on OneDrive or Google Drive (both companies know everything about me already). Then, start fresh on the new machine and just pull files down as needed.
It is a very freeing experience.
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Similar here. My solution is not to scrap the old machines and stow them away as a backup(?).
And the reality: Now I have at least six old machines... never touched/needed them for years, but still afraid to throw them away. This is also a/my kind of paranoia
[Edit]
 I do the same with coffee/espresso machines 
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glare 
looking over my shoulder at my last 3 laptops....
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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Ha! I used Laplink when it required a custom serial cable (late 80s).
I rang out the pins of one and cobbled up adapters so I could copy several PCs at once.
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If you can, remove the hard drives/SSDs/NVMEs from both laptops and plug them into ports inside a desktop.
Both USB and LAN are terribly slow compared to SATA/PCI-express.
I always image the drives before using them for something else and I recently had to do a drive upgrade (in linux).
The oldest SATA3 SSD disk (250GB) took over 4h using USB 3.0 to make an image. I remade the image (because of errors in the first attempt) with the drive connected to a SATA port and it took some 20min. The newest NVME disk (1TB) took under 1h to image.
Note that my 10 year old motherboard is PCI-express 2.0 and does not have a NVME port, I use an adaptor NVME->PCI-express.
As far as software is concerned, I am sorry but I can not offer any suggestions. I do not use Windows since they announced Windows 8.
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Before you buy anything check CUKUSA.com[^]
They have a silly name, but their prices are fantastic and they use anywhere from mid to top shelf components.
They primarily market to gamers, but look around, because I use gamer systems sans fancy video as coding workstations and they're fantastic for that.
Real programmers use butterflies
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Too late, but thanks for the reco. I did check out their site, and my guess is that my laptop is comparable to what they offer. I've been pleased with 3 Dells in a row, so I got an XPS17. It has a 17" screen, which wasn't offered last time (an XPS15). I like the 17" because I don't bother with monitors, partly because SWMBO appropriated my large desk, so I'm stuck with a puny one. 
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Well keep them in your back pocket. I ordered a dev machine from them in january, and it's fantastic. I can't believe how little I paid for it, and they have state side support I didn't even have to wait for. Plus they sell on amazon.
Between the prices, build quality and support, I really don't know how they do it. I feel a bit like I'm in a stephen king novel when I peruse their stock, like if I order something that seems too good to be true at the price, something terrible will happen to me later.
Real programmers use butterflies
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I love my old Dell XPS 17, which is why I've hung on to it for 10 years. 17" screen, plus a KB that isn't all scrunched together. Also has a second HD bay which was handy when I upgraded to a SSD drive (made my original drive the secondary, copied files across that I needed).
If Dell is making the XPS 17 again, I will probably get one...
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That's what I had before my current XPS15, and now I'll finally have one again.
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One option would be to image the old drive, then restore that image to the new laptop (having first imaged that in case it all goes to pot). You may/will have driver issues which may/can be resolved afterwards. If it works you've saved a lot of hassle, if it doesn't you at least have an image of the old setup in case you should ever need to look for something.
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Don't migrate applications or settings. This will prevent registry corruption from migrating. Reinstall the applications from source and move your files over.
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I purchased a 2tb sub from Dropbox last year and moved files I want to keep over there. when I changed my laptop a couple months ago I used Dropbox to get what I had to have.
I keep most of my downloaded files, so I almost always have the version I installed before and then there were the documents that I need.
I tell Dropbox not to download everything to the new lappy then, as has been suggested, only install as I need something.
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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The laplink software will run on local ethernet.
My biggest complaint about it is that it transfers things that don't work properly after they arrive, some rearranging and reinstalling is always needed.
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0. Make sure Windows is activated on the new laptop.
1. Make an image backup of the new laptops hard drive.
2. Reinstall Windows from scratch on the new laptop (#1 is in case you have issues with this). This probably includes several loops thru Windows update. May have to get drivers from the Dell website.
3. Reload all software you need from scratch on the new laptop.
4. Copy over any files you need from the old laptop. Either by sharing the drive on the network or by pulling it and connecting to the new laptop (USB enclosure or something).
There are variations on every one of these steps so you can choose how you do each step. You can swap steps 3 and 4 if you want.
I’ve built three new PCs and migrated to them (me, wife, relative) in the past year or so. This seems to work best. A fresh start and no ad-ware left over from Dell.
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You could invest few bucks a month in cloud storage. It may cost you less than what you would pay for that cable. Then you could get to your files from anywhere - including your phone or other computers.
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I'll make a different recommendation-
In the last days of your old laptop's use, install OneDrive and move all your important data into that base folder, otherwise maintaining the directory structure you have been using, but now with the OneDrive folder as the base. Leave your computer on all night to sync with the cloud. Then upon opening your new laptop, again install OneDrive under the same name, go to bed and leave your new computer on all night. Come morning both computers will contain the same data files. The best of both worlds.
Apps? Carefully decide and re-install the ones you really need and use. Some you may have to first uninstall so that you may be allowed to install on the new laptop.
Keep the old laptop for a year. Sometimes there is a buried gem you need to go back and get.
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Why not just work from within a virtualized OS? All you need to do is copying the vm files to the new box. My setup is as this: A linux host and a bunch of virtualized OSes including Win10, Win7 and Raspbian OS.
Behzad
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I'm always ready to migrate. For any software installed on my machine (except for free stuff, which can be downloaded again), I archived the setups + serials in my personal folder, so I can install again on any new machine. And my personal folders (Documents, Desktop etc.) are not stored on the computer's drive but on an external USB drive. Although I must admit on a laptop it wouldn't be practical do always have an external USB drive connected. But in addition, I'm doing a differential backup of all relevant folders to a second external USB drive once a week using "FreeFileSync", so I could just take the backup and copy it over to a new laptop, if I ever bought one.
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in the Thanksgiving, I bought a Kindle reader for myself. after that, I ordered my first kindle book from Amazon.com.
I used the default target location "My Kindle Library" to send my kindle book and paid the money.
It turns out that on my Kindle reader, I can not open this book: the error message is saying "incompatible format".
Not sure how to fix this issue.
diligent hands rule....
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Call Amazon. I have downloaded loads of books to my Kindle and never had a problem.
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