Systems Management

In the past, we would use the Windows Easy Transfer wizard to backup a user's data and profile settings. We could save the single file to a network share or external media and then simply run the file on their new machine. This worked well as it always brought over all their data and most, if not all, of their program settings. It even allowed us to choose which users to backup and again on the new machine, which users to restore.

Since moving to Windows 8 and now beginning to rollout Windows 8.1, we have noticed that Windows Easy Transfer wizard is no longer an option. We have looked into using the latest version of USMT but this is a little more work and doesn't have the desired functionality. When moving a user from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 using USMT 5 (with the hotfix for Office 2013), it only moves their data and some settings for Office. There is the option to create custom XML files (or modify the default migapp.xml) but the amount of work required to figure out all the paths and locations where all the software we use stores the settings seems overly complicated.

Anyone performing user profile migrations that has a better solution? Any help or ideas would be most appreciated.

Thanks!