Migrating User State Data

Operating system deployment always involves user state migration-the process of migrating users' documents and settings from one operating system to another. Even when you don't migrate user state during deployment, users will spend countless hours trying to restore their preferences (such as desktop backgrounds, screensavers, and themes). Because this manual process reduces user productivity and usually increases support calls, organizations often choose to migrate some portion of user state to new operating systems as they are deployed.

User satisfaction is another reason to elevate the importance of user state migration in your project. Users are simply more satisfied and feel less overwhelmed when they sit down in front of a new operating system and they don't have to recover their preferences. The fact is that unsatisfied users can lead to poor post-implementation reviews and can have negative consequences for future deployment projects. For example, user dissatisfaction with previous projects can stall a deployment project that you know will benefit the company in the long term. Keep the users happy.

This tutorial helps you decide which user state migration tools best suit your environment. It then explores the User State Migration Tool (USMT) 4.0, including customizing and automating the user state migration process. You'll learn how to identify user state data, how to plan the user state migration project, and how to execute the user state migration using tools such as Windows scripting and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 (MDT 2010).