Restore Office 2007 Settings After Migrating From Windows XP to Windows 7

[Prometheus]

My employer just migrated my work machine from XP to Windows 7. They DID NOT use Microsoft's "Easy Transfer" tool to migrate program settings. Instead, they just made backup copies of everything from the "application data" folder and hoped for the best.

I had made dozens of customizations to the settings and toolbars in each of the Office 2007 programs I use. Does anyone know if/how I can get these back without trying to do them all over again?

I tried copying everything from my old Application Data>Microsoft folder to the new AppData>Roaming>Microsoft folder, but the only noticeable effect was replacing the shortcuts I'd had on the Quick Launch bar.

 

[SRW]

If you have another xp machine you can restore the backed up settings to that machine then use the "easy transfer" program to port them over to the win 7 box.

 

[Prometheus]

If you have another xp machine you can restore the backed up settings to that machine then use the "easy transfer" program to port them over to the win 7 box.

Unfortunately, all I have available is XP running on a virtual machine within one of the IT guys' Win 7 box. I'm also not sure if it's worth asking him to try, since Microsoft's instructions for the Easy Transfer program include running it on the target Win 7 machine before re-installing all the software. I don't understand the tech enough to have any idea why that would be necessary, though.

 

[SRW]

There is no need to run the transfer program on the win 7 machine first, you can save the files and settings off to a network drive or flash drive from the XP, then run it on the win 7 machine to get the settings. You are given options on how to transfer.

 

[Prometheus]

There is no need to run the transfer program on the win 7 machine first, you can save the files and settings off to a network drive or flash drive from the XP, then run it on the win 7 machine to get the settings. You are given options on how to transfer.

Okay, thanks for the tip.

 

[SRW]

The migration from XP to win 7 is made difficult because you cannot do a direct upgrade, you can upgrade from XP---vista---win 7, but if you do not have a copy of vista around your are SOL.

The quickest way I have found is to use my Ipod, I first do a back up of the XP onto the Ipod, then use the Transfer Wizard to get the doc and settings, do a clean install of win 7, reinstall programs then use the transfer wizard to get the files and settings from the Ipod. Then pray to the god I do not believe in that it all works.

 

[Prometheus]

If I'd had the choice, I wouldn't have switched at all. XP did every thing I ever needed it to just fine.

Oddly, copying the XP 'Application Data' folders into Win7's 'AppData/Roaming' folder did perfectly restore all my settings in other software like Firefox, Google Earth, Camtasia.... It only seems not to have worked on MS Office apps (I haven't checked everything yet, though).