Migrating user data

If your company does not use roaming profiles or any other kind of user experience management, you can use Microsoft User State Migration Tool (USMT) to migrate user state and data during large deployments of Windows 10 in an organization.

Important Note

USMT can be installed when setting up the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK).

USMT captures user accounts, user files, OS settings, and application settings before migration and migrates these settings to your new Windows 10 installation. This can be used for computer replacement and computer migrations. You will need to set up a file server or a removal media to store the computer settings and user settings during the migration process. To migrate user settings, you need to know the following commands: scanstate.exe and loadstate.exe.

Understanding the scanstate.exe command

The scanstate command is used to scan the source computer, collect files and settings, and write them to a file share or a removable media.

The syntax of this command is as follows:

scanstate.exe \\server\share\folder\ /i:migapp.xml /i:miguser.xml

Here, scanstate.exe is the command we use to back up the user's data and applications; \\server\share\folder is the path to your shared folder or removable media where you put the backup file; and /i:migapp.xml and /i:miguser.xml are the files that are required in order to migrate supported application settings and user settings.

We can execute the scanstate.exe command like so:

scanstate.exe X:\Migration\ /i:migapp.xml /i:miguser.xml

In the following screenshot, you can see the output of the previous command:

Figure 2.22 - Output from the scanstate.exe command

In the preceding screenshot, if you look at the file path that you used in the command, you will see a USMT.MIG file:

Figure 2.23 - The scanstate.exe migration file

This .mig file contains all the user's files, OS settings, and application settings. As you can see, this file is nearly 370 MB in size.

Understanding the loadstate.exe command

Now that you've used the scanstate command and the migration to Windows 10 is ready, you can use the loadstate command to restore the .mig file you created earlier, which contains all the user files, OS settings, and application settings, we will restore the file to the new installed computer so that the user can start using their new computer straight away.

The syntax of this command is as follows:

loadstate.exe \\server\share\folder\ /i:migapp.xml /i:miguser.xml

Here, loadstate.exe is the command we use to migrate the user's data and applications; \\server\share\folder is the path to your shared folder or removable media where the backup file has been placed; and the /i:migapp.xml and /i:miguser.xml files are required to restore the application settings and user settings.

We can execute the loadstate.exe command like so:

loadstate.exe X:\Migration\ /i:migapp.xml /i:miguser.xml

In the following screenshot, you can see the output of the previous command:

Figure 2.24 - Output from the loadstate.exe command

In the preceding screenshot, you can see that all the user's files, OS settings, and application settings have been migrated to the new computer.

Now, let's move on to troubleshooting activation issues.