Any worthwhile windows migration program?

Yes - widely recommended on this site
Macrium Reflect free
and to quote Kari who has written extensive tutorials for Macrium

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

I want to start with a very subjective, personal opinion: Macrium Reflect Free is the best available free imaging solution for Windows.

That being said there are quite a many alternatives for those searching for a free, easy to use imaging solution to create regular backups of your Windows installation. I have tried most of them, been quite happy with some but never found anything that comes even close to Macrium Reflect. It is extremely easy to use even for newbies and does exactly what it is designed to do, backing up your Windows system allowing an easy restore when something goes wrong.

and it has NEVER let me down either on the sites I work on when I have suggested it , or on a personal basis.

Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition

and the user guide
Macrium Reflect User Guide - Knowledgebase 8.0 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

and to a different computer - hardware
Re-deploying to new hardware - Knowledgebase 8.0 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

Your post is not clear to me as -

Please correct me if I’m wrong: my idea is that these transfer apps are not worth the hassle and it’s better to just install and transfer the data manually either with file explorer, robocopy, Acronis or something of the sort even though this is much longer and laborious.

as whilst personal data can be transferred manually by simple copy and paste or whatever method you wish

Installed apps/programs cannot be transferred manually - as of course they have data in many places including the registry etc.

Finally

As a computer repair technician,

I am puzzled as to what exactly you are asking, as the question as I read it, seems too basic for a repair tech to be asking.

Please explain what it is I am missing as to the technicalities of the question

Looking at this from another angle: whilst you can move entire windows installations from PC to PC, there is another approach, albeit at a license cost per use, which can be helpful in some cases where the above is infeasible (E.g. ex -MBR -> UEFI installation).

Laplink PCMover
Easeus Todo PCTrans

I have used these, but only a couple of times and some years ago now.
Both programs and data can be (selectively) transferred- a huge timesaving for complex installations with many programs.
I found some 95% plus success- a few progs had to have their licenses reapplied, a few had to be reinstalled.
Either both PC's have to be 32 bits, both 64 bits. You can't mix these.

A disk image of the source PC makes this easier (see e.g. Macrium Reflect - above).

Hello @rodion15,

Macrium Reflect is widely used on this Forum so there is PLENTY of help available if you need it. Here are some alternatives that you might also find useful . . .

 Alternatives - Imaging & Backup

Other Backup options [ Software ] available . . .

Software:

This Software is listed in alphabetical order as opposed to relevance order.

> Acronis True Image - PAID
> AOMEI Backupper Standard Edition - Free Backup Software for Windows - FREE
> EaseUS ToDo Backup - FREE
> FreeFileSync: Open Source File Synchronization & Backup Software - FREE
> Karen's Replicator - Backup Utility - FREE
> NovaBackup - PAID
> Paragon Backup & Recovery - FREE
> Second Copy Automatic Backup Software - PAID
> SyncBackFree: Backup and Synchronization Software - FREE
> SyncToy - MS Download Centre - FREE

---

I hope this helps.

The paid-for version of Macrium Reflect comes with a ReDeploy feature that does much the same as those listed above by S1W2. But I have yet to find a situation that needs such help. Windows 10 itself is pretty good at sorting out new drivers when it find itself unexpectedly running on new hardware.

I have recently restored a Macrium image of my System One below (Intel Pentium, Intel HD graphics) to a new machine with an AMD processor and Radeon graphics. On first boot it said 'installing drivers' then rebooted to the desktop with everything working properly. A check for updates in Windows update was all that was required to get a few more AMD-specific drivers.

Ztruker said:

Bree, I thought Macrium's ReDeploy was for restoring an image to new hardware. I don't think it has anything to do with software, or am I misunderstanding you post (again)?

I was just making the point that no matter how different the new hardware is, I've never yet found a case where Windows can't sort it out for itself with out the aid of ReDeploy, or any other 3rd-part tool for fining the 'right' drivers.

Bree said:

I was just making the point that no matter how different the new hardware is, I've never yet found a case where Windows can't sort it out for itself with out the aid of ReDeploy, or any other 3rd-part tool for fining the 'right' drivers.

Yep, I do following all from tenforum tutorials.

1) download drivers for new device.

2) make an iso of current installation on old device

3) Create custom iso by injecting drivers into install.wim. Also if new pc has optane memory, inject optane drivers into boot.wim.

4) Clean install custom iso.

I never bother sysprepping anymore to remove old hardware drivers as W10 handles driver changes much more effectively than older versions.

I recently transferred OS from AMD laptop with Broadcom wifi, Radeon Graphics, SSD, forget sound but not realtek to new Intel PC, Intel Wifi, Iris graphics, realtek audio i.e. every major item different, and it booted fine. The main trick is to get all drivers for new pc upfront.

It may take a bit of effort learning how to use dism, but worth it in the end, and satisfying of course.