Make a checklist of files and settings that must be backed up and then later restored on the new operating system.
Your operating system
Be sure you have the original installation disk for the operating system you'll be installing or reinstalling, along with the installation key that you'll need to provide during setup. Without these, you won't get far with the migration process. If you are reinstalling a version of Windows that you have already been using, remember, too, that Windows may only be validated on one machine. If you are moving to a new machine, your attempt at validating Windows will fail, so you will need to call the 24-hour validation centre after reinstallation. This means you need to be near a telephone, or have one handy, when it's time to perform the validation.
Installation disks or files
Before moving to a new Windows operating system, look through the Start menu of your current Windows setup and make note of all of the applications that you want to be able to use on the new installation. Some installed applications may not have a Start menu entry but rather show up as small icons in your Windows taskbar's system tray or notification area.
Once you have identified all of the programs, large and small, that you want to take with you, gather together the installation disks or files for those applications, and make sure you have any required registration numbers, as well. If you have a program that you know will balk at being installed on new hardware, you may need to gather together the phone numbers of the company that makes the program so that you can explain that you are installing the same copy of your software on a new computer.
To ease the chore of reinstalling all of your applications, consider taking the time to copy all of the installation CDs or DVDs to an external hard drive, from which installation can be done more quickly. The job of copying installation disks is easier - and often more foolproof - if you use a program such as UltraISO (http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso), which creates what's called an ISO image of the entire disk. To install from an ISO image you have created, you simply install UltraISO on the new operating system and then use the disk mounting feature of UltraISO to temporarily "mount" the images so that they appear to be a CD or DVD drive to your computer. Mounting is merely a matter of right-clicking the ISO file and selecting UltraISO...Mount to drive from the resulting pop-up.
Drivers
Along with the installation disks and serial numbers for your applications, you'll also want to assemble any driver disks needed to get all of the components in your PC or attached to your PC to work properly with the new operating system. Think about motherboard files, audio cards, wireless cards, video cards, USB add-in cards, printers, scanners, cameras, Webcams, iPod or MP3 players, special pointing devices, or anything else that you might have attached to your current Windows PC.
As with applications, installing all of these drivers will be easier and quicker if you copy the required disks or files to an external drive that you hook up to your computer once your new operating system is properly installed.
For most people today, losing years' worth of e-mail would be a serious setback. Contacts, important notes, reminders, and more are typically stored as e-mail or in e-mail programs. So you'll want to be sure your e-mail is backed up and restorable before you abandon your old operating system and install a new one.
How you migrate your e-mail will depend upon the program in which it is currently stored. If you rely on some type of Web e-mail - such as Gmail or Yahoo - then migration isn't even necessary. You'll be able to access it from any Web browser, period.
But if you have e-mail in Outlook, Outlook Express, or another application, you'll either need to know how to back up and restore your e-mail files, or you'll need to enlist the help of a program specifically designed to take that headache away from you. The latter approach is probably the best one for most. Consider applications such as Genie Mail Backup (http://www.genie- soft.com/products/geniemail/default.html) or Outback (http://ajsystems.com/outbackplus/obpdnload.html), or EZ Backup Ultimate
Documents and settings
Outback and EZ Backup will take care of backing up your documents and browser shortcuts, as well. But if your documents are in nonstandard places - for instance, if you have created special folders that are outside of the traditional Documents and Setting folder - you'll need to tell these programs where to find your documents, or you'll need to back up those document locations yourself. And don't forget financial files - which are often kept in the same folder as the application used to create them, as is the case with Quicken.
Browser shortcuts
Many of us have accumulated a long list of favorites or bookmarks in our Web browsers, so don't forget to back those up to take with you to your new operating system.
Backing up bookmarks is fairly easy and can usually be done directly from the browser itself. With Internet Explorer, select Import and Export from the File menu, and follow the prompts. With Firefox, open the Bookmarks menu, and select Organize Bookmarks. From the resulting dialog box, select Import and Backup, and follow the prompts.
Once you have installed your operating system and browser, open the browser, and use the same menu options to import the bookmarks that you exported.
Final considerations
If at all possible, don't delete or reformat your current hard drive in order to install the new operating system. Try to install the new operating system on a new hard drive. That way, should anything go awry or should you find yourself missing some critical file, you can always go back to the original disk and retrieve it. Hard drives today are inexpensive, and if everything goes well, you can always use the old hard drive as an external backup unit, or you can install it inside of your new computer, if you have one, for the purposes of data storage or backup. Preparing carefully to move to a new operating system should result in a smooth and relatively painless migration that takes but a few hours. The alternative - not preparing at all - will typically lead to a frustrating exercise.