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Identify File Types, Files, and Folders

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1

When planning for your migration, if not using MigDocs.xml, you should identify the file types, files, folders, and settings that you want to migrate. First, you should determine the standard file locations on each computer, such as My Documents, C:\Data, and company-specified locations, such as \EngineeringDrafts. Next, you should determine and locate the non-standard locations. For non-standard locations, consider the following:

  • File types. Consider which file types need to be included and excluded from the migration. You can create this list based on common applications used in your organization. Applications normally use specific file name extensions. For example, Microsoft® Office Word® primarily uses .doc, .docx and .dotx file name extension. However, it also uses other file types, such as templates (.dot files), on a less frequent basis.

  • Excluded locations. Consider the locations on the computer that should be excluded from the migration (for example, %WINDIR% and Program Files).

  • New locations. Decide where files should be migrated to on the destination computer for example, \My Documents, a designated folder, or a folder matching the files' name and location on the source computer. For example, you might have shared data on source machine or you might wish to clean up documents outside the user profiles on the source system. Identify any data that needs to be redirected to a new location in the apply phase. This can be accomplished with location modify rules.

Once you have verified which files and file types that the end users work with regularly, you will need to locate them. Files may be saved to a single folder or scattered across a drive. A good starting point for finding files types to include is to look at the registered file types on the computer.

To find the registered file types on a computer running Windows XP

  1. Click Start and then click My Computer.

  2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.

  3. On the File Types tab, the registered files types are displayed in the Registered file types dialog box.

To find the registered file types on a computer running Windows Vista or Windows 7

  1. Click Start. Open Control Panel, click Control Panel Home in Windows Vista, and click Programs.

  2. Click Default Programs, and click Associate a file type or protocol with a program.

  3. On this screen, the registered file types are displayed.

For more information about how to change the file types, files, and folders that are migrated when you specify the MigUser.xml file, see User State Migration Tool (USMT) How-to topics.

See Also

Other Resources

Determine What to Migrate