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I have a user profile for my current domain user in C:\Users\peter.NEMOQ_AD.

Now I'm moving to another domain, separate from the old. The new profile is in C:\Users\peter.ENALOG.

I want to keep everything from my old profile. How can I do this? I've tried:

  • Copy all files from peter.NEMOQ_AD to peter.ENALOG. Some files could not be replaced and I didn't get everything from the old profile. I got the default wallpaper for example - nothing critical but it makes me wonder what else...
  • Rename my old profile to peter.NEMOQ_AD2 and then rename peter.ENALOG to peter.NEMOQ_AD. After this I cannot log in to the new account.
Palpie
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4 Answers4

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The right way to do this is to copy one profile to the other using the User Profiles settings button in the Advanced System properties. Select the old profile, select to copy it, browse to the new profile, set the option for "permitted to use" to Everyone (or your new user account".

joeqwerty
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I won't change the correct answer, as the Windows Easy Transfer tool helped me good enough at the time.

Recently I wanted to move my profile from one domain user to another again. I found another tool which worked like a charm "User Profile Wizard" by ForensiT. The only problem I got was with the Dynamics CRM Plugin for Outlook, which I hade to reinstall.

Palpie
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Windows Easy Transfer is now deprecated and does not exist on Windows 10.

Instead you can use Microsoft USMT. It is free to use, however its quite complicated. Using a GUI makes it really simple though.

See this Technet article for more information on USMT how-to-migrate-windows-user-profile-to-new-account-new-pc-or-new-domain

Thomas Ehler
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Just copying files is not a good idea. Windows does not keep everything related to the user in C:\Users* directories, but also in registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER), and IMHO, even if you try to copy registry keys, it will still not work.

The fact that you are migrating to another domain is even worse, because the SIDs used on the old one will not be recognized on the new.

Since you use Windows 7, why not to use Windows Easy Transfer tool? It will probably enable you to migrate everything you need.

Arseni Mourzenko
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    HKCU is a file in the user's directory. Regardless, the owner's SID is sprinkled around in a few places, and that would need to be changed for it to work. As you said, using a tool like Easy Transfer would make it much easier. – Chris S Jul 09 '10 at 13:45
  • I'll try the tool! – Palpie Jul 09 '10 at 13:56
  • It worked, but not as good as I hoped. All personal files and some Windows settings were transferred. But other things, such as Outlook accounts, settings in Office, Visual Studio and almost all application's settings didn't. I guess this is the best I can get and now I'll do this on the rest of my company's computers... :| – Palpie Jul 12 '10 at 14:00
  • Wtf? Why Microsoft's tool cannot even save the settings of Microsoft applications?! By the way, I know that migrating Microsoft Outlook is a huge pain. I used to follow the steps in a forum post, but the link is dead. In short, you have to save PST files, export the rules and export HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\Outlook. If you want additional information, I can probably find you some valid links. – Arseni Mourzenko Jul 14 '10 at 02:53
  • Luckily I don't have any POP accounts on my work mail, only Exchange and IMAP. But thanks for the registry information. I'll use it for the other computers. – Palpie Aug 16 '10 at 09:16
  • I realize this is an old question, but just wanted to say that I have successfully migrated profiles using this procedure: http://helgeklein.com/blog/2010/08/free-script-user-profile-domain-migration-with-setacl/. It replaces the user's SID through HKCU. The only thing that didn't seem to get migrated, was passwords saved in the vault. – abstrask Mar 18 '14 at 07:17