I'm considering setting up Windows 10 64-bit on a separate storage drive and transferring over a Windows 10 32-bit setup. What's the best program to transfer programs and data: Easeus ToDo PCTrans, PC Mover, Zinstall, or something else?
Those are the 3 I've heard of- I've used PC Mover and PCTrans quite successfully, but not for a long time, so any comments would be out of date really. My experience with PC Mover was that of the 300 or so installed progs, of which I excluded security software and large ones like Office programs, there was something like a 95%+ success rate. A very few had to be reinstalled; many had their licenses transferred too, which surprised me.
I have used both methods: a. using Old PC / New PC - somewhat iterative and b. using a disk image of source PC.
Of these I prefer the latter- much simpler and the license then was cheaper.
Yes, but of course not the reverse. (Well, I've not specifically checked Zinstall so that's an assumption..).
Of course you would then be running exclusively 32 bit programs on your 64 bit OS.. I suppose there might be an odd program with which you could experience a problem...
And note:
16-bit applications, in particular, are not natively supported on 64-bit Windows 10 because the operating system lacks a 16-bit subsystem. This can even affect 32-bit applications that utilize a 16-bit installer.
I'll give PC Mover an endorsement, too: I used it to move my old production image over from the previous production desktop to the current one about 18 months ago. Got 99% of applications moved without difficulty in my case. Never tried the 32- to 64-bit switch, though. HTH,
--Ed--
I guess that's relative- how much is an hour of your time worth?
If, say, a 1-off license of $40 saves several hours... in that time you could study a foreign language, fall in love, fix Brexit (well, ok that's wildly optimistic)...
I got the progs as giveaways- even better- and saved myself 2-3 days.
Just checked approx UK prices, and you may need to add extra for VAT
zinstall c. £90
PC mover Home - £30
PCTrans - £38
PCMover seems fairly good value.
I found PCTrans to be flakey (I used the free version on MS Office).
I would do a test first with free version of PCTrans which allows two apps to be transferred to see if you can transfer 32bit to 64bit ok.
I am sceptical they will work that well. In any case, you would want to have 64bit versions where possible?
I've never used them on Office programs and never would. As I think I commented above, I'd avoid transferring larger complex programs and install those manually.
My experience with several hundred progs over 3 uses (up to about 3 years ago- not more recently) was more than 95% success.
The version using a disk image of the source PC had a cheaper license back then.
My experience with PCMover was different. I had used older versions with Win7 and Win8 some time back and, like already said, they moved 99% (or so) of the apps without problems.
But when I tried it on Win10, it failed -- miserably! It only moved the apps that were really easy to move, and consequently, really didn't need third-party software to move. The other apps failed, especially Office 2013. I had a very difficult time removing the corrupted version of that and reinstalling it manually. So, my own advice is not to waste money on PC Mover.
As to the ToDo PC Trans, my experience with it was no different. Did not do well actually moving the apps.
My guess is that MS has changed something in Win10 that these apps rely on, so they don't work well anymore.
Your better bet would be just to "clone" Win10 to the other drive, as that would migrate over all the apps in the process.
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