SmartMoney: Long-suffering Windows users can only dare to dream of Mac’s ease-of-use
Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 03:43 PM EST"One of the biggest obstacles to buying a new PC is the drudgery of moving all your programs, files and settings from the old machine to the new one. It can take days to move every file using disks, then reinstall all your programs and re-create all the preferences and settings you have built up over the years. You may also have to download and reapply numerous patches and upgrades to your programs," Walter S. Mossberg reports for SmartMoney.com.
"This is the sort of thing your operating system ought to handle with ease. But the 'Files and Settings Transfer Wizard' that Microsoft builds into Windows XP doesn't even try to move software to a new machine. And I have never been able to get it to work properly even for moving files and settings," Mossberg reports. "Techies, and those with techies in their employ, sometimes move the entire hard disk from the old computer into the new one, configuring it as a secondary or 'slave' drive, from which data files, and even programs, with settings intact, can be accessed as before. But this technique is beyond the knowledge and ability of mainstream users."
"Another option is to buy an external hard disk, attach it to your old PC, and copy to it all of your key data files and settings — things such as your Web browser bookmarks. Then you can move this external drive over to your new computer and copy everything to that new machine's main hard disk. But this procedure still won't transfer your programs, and it can be costly," Mossberg reports.
Mossberg then goes on the list even more convoluted, pain-in-the-neck ways to transfer files between Windows machines. (We pity these people, we really do.)
"All of this is much easier in the Apple world. If you are moving up from an old Macintosh to a new one, and both machines have FireWire ports — common on Macintoshes — you can just link the two computers with a standard FireWire cable. No special software is required," Mossberg reports. "After setting up the new Macintosh, you just reboot it while holding down the 'T' key. That puts the computer in a special mode in which it acts like an extra hard disk on the old Mac, and it shows up on the old Mac's screen as a hard-drive icon. To move data files and settings, you simply drag the contents of the 'Home' folder from the old Mac to the 'Home' folder on the new one. Most programs can also be transferred in a similar way, by simply dragging the icons representing them from the Applications folder on the old machine to the Applications folder on the new one."
Mossberg reports, "Someday, perhaps, Microsoft will come up with something just as simple and effective for long-suffering Windows users. At least, we can dare to dream."
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wintel Sufferers™ are living a nightmare already, they just don't seem to realize it. You finally want it to just work? Get a Mac. Otherwise, dream on. For information regarding smoothly switching yourself from Windows to Mac OS X click here. You can thank us later.
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Microsoft is a nightmare