Migrating User Profile Data

User data includes more than just documents from a word processor. User data includes things such as favorite Internet sites, customized application settings such as e-mail account data, desktop backgrounds, files, and folders. Unless you are using roaming user profiles in your organization, the computer that a person uses a computer is likely to have important data stored on that computer. Migrating a user from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 successfully involves ensuring that all this important data makes the transition from a person's old computer to the new one.

You can view the list of user profiles stored on a computer running Windows 7 by opening System within Control Panel, clicking Advanced System Settings, and then clicking the Settings button in the User Profiles area of the Advanced System Settings tab. From this dialog box, you can view the size of user profiles, delete user profiles stored on the computer, or change the user profile from a local profile to a roaming user profile.

A roaming user profile is a profile stored on a server that is accessible from any computer running Windows 7 on a network. Administrators implement roaming user profiles when people do not use a specific computer, but they might log on to any computer in the organization. Roaming user profiles also allow central backup of user data.