I want to take a new drive which I would like to format to Win 8.1 and make it my primary (bootable) drive but I would like to transfer program that are loaded on a Win XP drive (old one). I just do not want to reinstall all program onto the new drive which will take an act of GOD to find the originals. Is there a way?
Thanks
You need a good migration tool.
I've had hit and miss success with the following tool
but its one of the best out there, they've been out there
since the beginning ...
A decent tool will cost money and still doesn't guarantee success on everything.
https://www.laplink.com/index.php
I would think you may run into some issues with certain programs that are activated on the XP machine, they would have to be de-activated first and you may encounter Registry issues with non de-activated programs. It really depends what you need to migrate.
I think zINc's link will only do system settings and not actual programs/apps.
I think you are going to have a really tough time migrating programs from XP to 8.1
PCmover by Laplink is a good tool, but XP to Windows 8.1 that's a big ask, a lot of the software for Windows XP might not be compatible with Windows 8.1
I think your be better installing a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 and run a virtual machine with a image of your XP system on it.
sorry but im almost 100% sure that it cannot be done (atleast with most of your programs)
its clearly the best to reinstall all of these programs in windows 8,