About two months ago, I got a new PC and a new phone. This gave me an opportunity that I really hadn’t had before: I could compare the setup experiences of both, while they were fresh in my mind. I’ve had probably 15 phones and maybe 30 computers in my life, but I am pretty sure this is the first time I got a new one of both in such short order. And it led me to an inescapable conclusion: moving from one PC to another is HARD. Much harder than it should be.
When I got my new phone
As frequent readers of this blog will tell you, I’m an iPhone guy. I started with the iPhone because, ironically, it worked better with PCs than either Androids or the Windows-based phones of the era. That distinction has become less important since so much is cloud-based now, but at this point I’m deep in the ecosystem.
When I got my new phone, I powered it up and followed the instructions. It had me put my other phone, powered up, next to it. I waited about 20 minutes and responded “yes” a couple of times. And that was it. I picked up my new phone and set up Face ID, and I was done. All my apps were there, so was my downloaded content and even my mail settings.
When I got my new PC
When I got my new PC, I answered “yes” to a couple of things and entered in my Microsoft account info. Some stuff did show up, like my documents. However, I spent the better part of the next two days setting it up. Little things like the screen background didn’t migrate over. Absolutely none of my apps came over. Even some of the Microsoft apps didn’t come over automatically.
Everything in Windows was wrong. The settings I’d carefully created on my old PC didn’t come over, so I had to find out how to do things like make sure the NUM LOCK key was on by default. I also had to rearrange my Start menu to my liking.
Setting up my email meant finding specific settings on weird, old-looking pages from my email providers. Gmail came over pretty well on the third try. I don’t know why it didn’t work the first two.
My printer (yes, I still have a printer) didn’t show up, and that meant a trip to another dusty old page to download the installer. Weird little things didn’t work, like my keyboard. I had to download yet another file from yet another page to make that work.
I wanted the computer to connect to an external hard drive where I keep my photos. The computer couldn’t find the drive, because “network discovery” was off. It wasn’t hard to turn it on but seriously?
And then, once I felt like I finally had my PC ready to use (including downloading Chrome and getting the third degree from Edge as to why I was doing it, the real fun began.
Yes I’m sure. Yes I want this app to open this. Here’s my six digit code.
Of course, none of my apps remembered me. None of my web sites remembered me. I use a password manager so I kept my passwords, but of course it didn’t remember me either.
Every site I wanted to sign on to asked me for some sort of verification code, which they sent to my phone. It’s not like I’m incapable of typing in a 6 digit code, but it gets tiring after 20 or 30 times.
And then, there were the files. Do I want PDFs to open in Edge, or Acrobat, or Chrome, or what? What about JPEGs? What about downloaded video? Every new kind of file took a new set of questions.
Yes, I could have tried migrating my profile
Upon reading this, someone will want to email me a link to an article like this which shows how to migrate your settings manually. I think that article pretty much says it all by making it a 5-step process that involves things like “Credential Manager” and “sysdm.cpl.” Does that sound like something the average person would do?
Here’s what I don’t get
I get that Microsoft wants to make sure your stuff isn’t stolen when you get a new PC. So they require some guarantee that it’s you. But obviously this is a problem that has been solved with phones. Phones have biometrics like fingerprint readers and face readers. Why can’t PCs have these?
The way I see it, if you get a new PC it should do the following:
- Ask you for your Microsoft account. This would be the one and only time you need to get a code from your phone to authenticate.
- Migrate your exact, entire user profile including all your customizations, printer drivers, cloud files, everything.
- Get the system started downloading and installing the most common apps
- If you had Chrome installed before, install Chrome without nagging you
- If you use Microsoft 365 then it should at the very least migrate all the preferences from those apps, including email settings and custom templates.
And folks that should be the bare minimum. I get that a PC is a much more open system but it should at least work with the common apps and settings. It shouldn’t take two days to tweak things for the way you want them.
Because honestly, we’ve had like 40 years to get this right
The first IBM PC, the progenitor to all of today’s Windows boxes, came out in 1981. There were computers for about 6 years before that, too. So in all that time, PCs have just failed to keep up. It’s worth pointing out that Macs have a migration assistant that isn’t perfect but it’s a lot better than what you get from a PC.
Now, I tend to buy decent computers but then I use the living heck out of them so I still trade them out every other year or so. Most people buy computers for $250 or so and they break the first time you sneeze near them. I’ve helped a neighbor get 5 new computers in 5 years.
So, it’s not just me. It’s a pain for regular folks, and I have a feeling that the pain is twice as much if you’re a gamer. So come on Microsoft, do us a favor. Buy an iPhone and see how they do it. Heck, buy a Samsung because they have a pretty good app for migrating too (even if you currently have an iPhone.) And then, essentially, do what they did. Could that be so hard?
