Identify File Types, Files, and Folders

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When planning for your migration, you should identify the file types, files, folders, and settings that you want to migrate. First you should determine and locate 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 nonstandard locations. For nonstandard 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 Word primarily uses .doc 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 the original location).

Once you have verified which files and file types the end users work with regularly, you will need to locate them. Files may be saved to 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 Startand then click My Computer.

  2. On the Toolsmenu, click Folder Options.

  3. On the File Typestab, the registered files types are displayed in the Registeredfile types dialog box.

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

  1. Open Control Panel, click Control Panel Home on the left hand side, 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 MigUser.xml, see Using Using USMT.