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I am replacing my Windows XP machine with a Windows 7 machine. Does anyone know of an desktop application or web application that can help with re-installing all my applications on the new machine.

The utopian solution would be:

  1. Run a scan on my old machine which makes an inventory of applications.

  2. Save this inventory online, or on a USB key.

  3. Load the inventory onto the new machine

  4. Run an application on the new machine, which downloads and installs the latest versions of the applications. The user would be notified of all applications that require an install from media.

Transferring the application settings onto the new machine is a nice-to-have, but would not be necessary. I would not want the application to transfer license keys. I'd do this manually.

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Due to a practically infinite number of applications out there it would be just about impossible to cover every available application for windows. aside from the Ninite recommendation your best bet would be to use Add/Remove Programs and inventory what you have installed manually and then check the manufacturer websites for the latest Windows 7 compatible versions or patches. – Xantec Nov 2 '10 at 17:16
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See this video for migrating from XP to W7...technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd671583.aspx – Moab Nov 2 '10 at 19:21

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

I don't know of an application doing what you request in your utopian solution -- and rather doubt that there is one available -- however you may wish to look into the highly rated Ninite to cut down on your installation workload. Check the boxes of the applications you use and have them all bundled into one convenient installer.

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Nice. This could complement what I want to do. – Phillip Ngan Nov 2 '10 at 17:16
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You may consider to use WET (windows easy transfer) and PickMeApp: two free solutions to migrate from XP to Windows 7. WET may transfer your XP settings to Win 7 while portable PickMeApp tool may transfer programs from XP to Windows 7. PickMeApp claims to support unlimited number of programs.

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up vote 0 down vote

You can use VMWare or VirtualBox with some applications that are incompatible with Windows 7. And for those that does not function in a virtual machine, install them in another windows installation just for them...

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