User State Migration Tool

(USMT) USMT or User State Migration Tool is a Microsoft facility to enable the migration of files, applications, settings and personalities between versions of the Windows operating system. The latest version of USMT V4 has specific support for the migration of user settings from Windows XP to Windows 7. USMT V4 is a very powerful migration facility, unfortunately is has no GUI and relies on a combination of command line scripting and XML coding to get the job done. For many the lack of GUI with USMT makes its exploitation rather problematic. Also, the fact that it is a standalone tool and not integrated with other lifecycle management facilities makes its advantages difficult to fully enjoy. USMT XML The operation of User State Migration Tool is controlled by XML files that define what and how settings should be migrated between machines. These XML files need to be hand crafted by professionals with a thorough knowledge of XML coding. The absence of templates for these XML files and an associated GUI to edit those templates is a further impediment to the widespread adoption of USMT. WinINSTALL Lifecycle Management Suite (LMS) With the introduction of WinINSTALL LMS, Scalable has introduced a comprehensive GUI that can be used to enable operation of User State Migration Tool. Furthermore the complexities of the XML, which control the operation of USMT, are concealed behind templates with their own USMT GUI. This GUI enables templates to be developed to support installation specific migration scenarios. Included in the WInINSTALL LMS support for USMT is the ability to perform a migration and operating system upgrade in-place using the new USMT hardlink facility. The hardlink facility is used if an operating system upgrade is targeted at an existing machine. In this scenario none of the applications, files, settings and personalities are moved. Instead, as part of the pre-boot execution (PXE) environment USMT simply identified where all the key files to be migrated are, and ensures they are injected into the correct place in the new operating system. Using USMT with hardlink under PXE enables machine migration to be measured in minutes rather than hours. Zero-Touch Migration LMS has for many years enabled zero-touch lifecycle management for remote Windows workstations and this capability is now extended to User State Migration Tool. Use of USMT is fully integrated with the LMS architecture enabling is use from the WinINSTALL GUI console. This capability ensures that, for the first time, USMT can be used in an entirely remote and zero-touch mode, via an intuitive GUI to guarantee rapid migration of user settings, files and applications to Windows 7