Quickly and efficiently transplant customized files and settings
Computers have personalities, in the form of user—customized network, desktop, and application settings. Recreating a computer's personality on a new or upgraded machine can be extremely time—consuming, especially when you need to repeat the task for multiple computers. The ability to migrate,rather than recreate, a computer's personality can save a significant amount of time and resources. Miramar Systems' Desktop DNA 2.5, Altiris's PC Transplant Pro 2.1 beta, and Tranxition's Personality Tranxport Professional (PT Pro) 2.0 give you this ability. You can save users' personalized settings, set up new computers or upgrade existing computers, then reapply the saved settings. The new or up—graded computers look familiar to users, who can immediately find printers, mapped network shares, and shortcuts.
The Test Environment
Migration scenarios can take several forms. In an in—place migration, you transfer a personality to an upgraded OS or software on the existing system. In a same—version migration, you transfer a personality to a new machine running the same OS and software that your user currently employs. In an upgrade migration, you transfer a personality to a new computer with new versions of the OS and software. Because many companies are considering upgrading to Windows 2000, which has greater systems requirements than Windows NT or Windows 9x, I tested the products' usability during an upgrade migration.
I set up five NT Workstation 4.0 computers and installed Service Pack 6a (SP6a), Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 5.5, and Microsoft Office 97 on each machine. (I set up multiple machines and tested each product several times. This method let me easily test each product's migration of different personality configurations.) On each source computer, I created a variety of personalized settings including shared folders, customized toolbars in Office applications, printer connections, and miscellaneous desktop settings. I also set up a Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox with several email messages for each of the computers. I then set up five new computers onto which I installed Win2K Professional and Office 2000. (I didn't manually install IE on the destination computers because Win2K includes a version of IE. My goals were to determine how thoroughly and how accurately the products transferred personalized settings, copied Outlook settings and existing email messages, and automated the migration process to the destination computers.
Desktop DNA 2.5
To begin, I inserted the Desktop DNA CD—ROM on my source computer. I didn't need to install the program to a shared folder as I did the other tested products (although Desktop DNA offers that option). The program gave me the option to perform the migration over the network or to save the settings to a file. I selected the Network transfer method, which uses TCP/IP to directly transfer personality settings over the network to remote computers. This method saves both file—server storage and network bandwidth because the program doesn't need to store settings information on a server, then copy the data to the new computer. This approach also saves time because one operation performs both the settings extraction and application. I clicked Source System to tell Desktop DNA that the local system would be the source computer.
Next, I ran the CD—ROM on the new computer, selected the Network option for the transfer method, and clicked Destination System to identify the local system as the destination computer. I then ran the migration wizard on the destination computer. Desktop DNA uses a wizard—based primary interface, which was easy to understand even though the numerous screens contained a lot of information. I needed to click through a lot of pages, which would be time—consuming if I were creating or migrating multiple personality profiles.
The wizard let me select system settings, application settings, files, and folders to copy to the new computer. The selection process was easy to understand but required several steps because the product offers a unique option: As well as transfer program settings, the program can copy entire applications to your new computer so that you don't need to install the applications separately. (This ability can be useful—for example, when transferring inhouse applications that you've customized for particular users—but most companies simply upgrade standard applications.) The program displayed a treeview of applications; when I expanded an application, the program revealed a check box for the application and a check box for the application's settings. I looked for an easy way to select only settings for all applications, but instead I needed to individually select each check box under all the applications. (The program provides a Select All button, but clicking the button selects all the application programs as well as all the settings.)
The wizard also let me set up filters to include document files and folders in the migration. The file—filter interface was easy to understand: When I selected Filters from the Settings tab's Files and Folders section, the program displayed a new window with separate tabs for configuring each of many filter options. I could include or exclude files according to type, name and location, date, and size. I could also create multiple filters without needing to close and reopen the interface. The filters transferred all the files I wanted (and none of the files I didn't want).
At the end of the wizard, I had the option of saving the selected settings as a profile to use for unattended migrations. I then clicked Start Migration to complete the transfer process. Desktop DNA copied the source computer's personality directly to the new computer. After the migration process finished, the program presented three logs showing undo options, errors, and exceptions. From the Undo Log, I could select migrated settings that I wanted to undo. The Error Log didn't display any errors, but the Exceptions Log showed a few settings that didn't transfer correctly and a few instructions that explained how to get transferred settings to apply correctly.
The program transferred my Outlook settings without any problem. When I ran Outlook 2000 on the destination computer, Outlook informed me that a previous version's settings were available and gave me the option to use those settings. I accepted and could immediately send and receive email messages. All my old messages and folders were in the same place as they had been on the source computer.
Desktop DNA offers command—line switches that let you control portions of the migration process without user intervention. (For example, Desktop DNA doesn't include command—line switches for automated installations but does have a command—line switch to uninstall the program.) The print documentation details the command—line switches and their functions.
I decided to test the program's automated network—migration capabilities. I set up two batch files: one for the source computer and one for the destination computer. The source computer's batch file needed only a few commands before the system was ready and waiting for the destination computer to connect. The destination computer's batch file required a little more work (although I could then reuse the batch file on many computers). To set up the destination computer, I needed the source computer's IP address or DNS name, the password I had specified for the source computer, and the filename of the personality profile I'd created earlier. The automated migration went off without a hitch.
Additional Utilities and Features
Desktop DNA has some interesting features that the other products don't have. The product's Validation feature let me detect potential settings problems before the migration. To test this feature, I clicked Validate on the migration wizard's Validation tab. Desktop DNA then displayed a treeview of potentially problematic applications and settings as well as explanatory warnings, as Figure 1 shows. This information was helpful and gave me an idea of problems I might face during subsequent migrations. I could save the results to a text file in case I needed to refer later to the information.
The Muscle Migration feature adds extra muscle to Desktop DNA's application—finding function. To test this feature, I installed GlobalSCAPE's CuteFTP Pro and Microsoft ActiveSync 3.1—neither of which Desktop DNA supports directly—on a source computer. I ran Desktop DNA's migration wizard, which didn't detect the applications. I then clicked Muscle Migration on the migration wizard's Settings tab to retrieve a list of all installed programs on the source computer. I had to search a little before I found CuteFTP and ActiveSync; CuteFTP appeared in a treeview under the vendor's name, and ActiveSync appeared as wcescomm.exe. But Desktop DNA successfully migrated the programs and settings for these two applications.
The program included both printed documentation and online Help files. The printed documentation was detailed and complete, but the online Help wasn't as detailed as I'd hoped.
The Bottom Line
I found Desktop DNA to be a helpful migration tool, and I especially liked the program's unique features and network—transfer option. The product's extensive program—settings support and Outlook support are also a plus. If you need to migrate entire applications, including inhouse applications, Desktop DNA is your best bet. However, if you need to migrate many different computer personalities, the program's wizard has too many steps to be practical.