Method for migrating from one computer to another

• US 6,889,376 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2000
• Issued: 05/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Treetop Ventures LLC
• Original Assignee: Treetop Ventures LLC
• Inventors: Kassan, Peter, Barritz, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Ingberg, Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nahar, Qamrun
• Application Number:
  US09/566,326
• Time in Patent Office: 1,821 Days
• Field of Search: 717/175, 717/177, 717/172, 717/169
• US Class Current: 717/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4451 User profiles; Roaming

Abstract

A process is provided for facilitating the migrating of a user'"'"'s overall software environment from a first computer to a second computer. The process includes enhancing the operating system on the computer or adding additional functionality to the original and new computers such that software products are identified and their subsequent operation tracked. This tracking operation is used to identify user data files and other files, settings and data which might be potentially moved to the new computer. The method then causes the appropriate programs, settings and files to be packed and moved. The files and programs are unpacked, and the new computer is ready for use such that its appearance and operating environment are identical to that of the original computer.

Claims

1. A method for migrating a user'"'"'s software programs from a first to a second computer, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying on the first computer, software products having software product files and product data files requiring to be prepared for future migration;

packing the software product files and the product data files in a manner that enables them to be moved at a future point in time to the second computer, based on the identifying step previously executed;

operating the first computer in accordance with a general purpose thereof including by running the software product files or generating associated user files after the packing in the first computer;

further including storing data files changes and/or control information changes generated by running the software products on the first computer and additionally packing the changes for use on the second computer;

moving the previously packed software product files and the product data files without using cloning to the second computer, except for files that are manually excluded, said moving of files being carried out without resorting to examining or considering all files of said first computer including those that are not associated with said identified software products being prepared for future migration; and

unpacking the moved software product files and the product data files onto the second computer.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the identifying and packing steps are carried out by automated software programs and including providing at least a portion of said automated software programs as part of an operating system of the first computer.

3. The method of claim 2, including allowing a user to manually edit a packing list of said product files and product data files generated automatically by said automated software programs.

4. The method of claim 1, in which the unpacking step is carried out by an automated unpacking software program and at least a portion of the automated unpacking software program is formed as part of an operating system of the second computer.

5. The method of claim 1, including carrying out said identifying step during installation of said software product files and said product data files on the first computer.

6. The method of claim 1, further including identifying control information associated with said software products during said installation.

7. The method of claim 1, further including tracking data files or control information generated by running the software products on the first computer and additionally packing tracked data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said packing step includes packing files by compressing or encrypting said files.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said packing step includes copying said software products onto removable storage medium loadable onto said first computer.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said moving step comprises transferring said software product files and product data files to the second computer via a data communication network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said data communication network is the Internet.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said software products are operable under specified licensing terms and conditions, and including, controlling packing of said software products based on said specified licensing terms and conditions.

13. The method of claim 12, including disabling the operation of said software products on the first computer.

14. The method of claim 12, including communicating with an independently provided software license manager and receiving from said software license manager said licensing terms and conditions.

15. The method of claim 1, including deleting said software products from said first computer at the time of carrying out said moving step.

16. The method of claim 1, including providing one or more software products to be moved with a packer program that passes a list of executable files or control information and with an unpacker program which is operable for unpacking the executable files or control information at the second computer.

17. The method of claim 16, in which said packer and unpacker programs are comprised of a plurality of software files identified by unique, standardized software file names.

18. The method of claim 16, further including providing a loader program and an unloader program for controlling said packer and unpacker programs.

19. The method of claim 18, including utilizing the unloader program to handle user data files.

20. The method of claim 1, further including surveying software products installed on the first computer and including further carrying out said identifying step based on results of said surveying step.

21. The method of claim 1, further including monitoring the execution of the software products installed on the first computer and including carrying out said identifying step based on results of said monitoring step.

22. The method of claim 1, including storing information defining the characteristics of the software products and data files in a registry and including operating a registry reader to read the registry to determine what software products are installed.

23. The method of claim 1, in which the step of moving the data comprises designating a moving van and constructing the moving van as a collection of data pertaining to the software products to be moved.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising including with the moving van a packing list.

25. The method of claim 24, the packing list including at least one license certificate for the second computer.

26. The method of claim 1, including refraining from unpacking onto the second computer the contents of a given software product, when that given software product is already available at the second computer from another source.

27. The method of claim 26, in which the given software products is available at the second computer by having been previously loaded thereon.

28. The method of claim 26, in which the given software product is available at the second computer by being loadable from a third computer.

29. The method of claim 26, in which the given software product is available at the second computer by being loadable from distribution media.

30. The method of claim 26, in which the given software product is available at the second computer by being loadable from the Internet.

31. The method of claim 1, including enabling said moving step only upon simultaneous execution disablement of said software products on the first computer.

32. A system for migrating a user'"'"'s software operating environment from a first to a second computer, the system comprising:

said first computer;

identifying software that serves to automatically identify those software products which define the operating environment, said software products having software product files and product data files requiring to be prepared for future migration, said identifying software being selectively operable during installation of said software product files and said product data files on the first computer;

packing software that packs the software product files and the product data files to be moved based on the identifying step previously executed;

operating the first computer in accordance with a general purpose thereof including by running the software product files or generating associated user files after the packing in the first computer;

further including storing data files changes and/or control information changes generated by running the software products on the first computer and additionally packing the changes for use on the second computer;

moving software that moves the software product files and the product data files without using cloning to the second computer and after the software product files and the product data files have been operationally utilized in the first computer, said moving of files being carried out without resorting to examining or considering all files of said first computer including files that are not associated with said identified software products being prepared for future migration, except for files that are manually excluded; and

unpacking software that unpacks the moved software product files and product data files onto the second computer.

33. The system of claim 32, in which the packing software comprises a packer program and a loader program and the loader program is a constituent component of an operating system of the first computer.

34. The system of claim 32, in which the unpacking software comprises an unpacker program and an unloader program and the unloader program is a constituent component of an operating system of the second computer.

35. The system of claim 32, including a tracking program that tracks data files or control information generated by running the software products on the first computer and additionally packing tracked data.

36. The system of claim 32, including a compressing program that compresses or encrypts said files.

37. The system of claim 32, wherein said software products are operable under specified licensing terms and conditions, and said packing software controlling the packing of said software products based on said specified licensing terms and conditions.

38. The system of claim 37, further including an independently provided software license manager and the packing software being configured to communicate with the license manager to receive therefrom said specified licensing terms and conditions.

39. The system of claim 32, in which the packing software disables the operation of said software products on said first computer when packing the files to be moved to the second computer.

40. A computer-readable medium comprising a software product with a facility for migrating the operation and functionality of the software product from a first to a second computer, the software product comprising:

software product files which define the operation and functionality of the software product;

packing software resident with the software product files on the medium and operable and including identifying information for identifying the software product files requiring to be transferred to the second computer in a future migration, and for enabling retrieving said files at a future point in time;

the software product files and product data files being operationally utilized in the first computer after the packing software packs the software product files and the product data files, further including storing data files changes and/or control information changes generated by running the software product on the first computer and additionally packing the changes for use on the second computer, without resorting to examining or considering all files of said first computer including files that are not associated with said identified software product being prepared for future migration; and

interface software for interfacing the packing software with other software that is instrumental in facilitating the migration of the software product to the second computer without using cloning.

41. The computer-readable medium comprising a software product of claim 40, in which the software product also includes unpacking software that functions to unpack the moved software product files onto the second computer.

42. The computer-readable medium comprising a software product of claim 40, in which the packing software includes a packer program and a loader program for respectively identifying files to be moved and for controlling the migration of said software product files.

43. The computer-readable medium comprising a software product of claim 42, in which the software product files comprise software product control files and software product data files.

44. A method for migrating the operation and functionality of a software product from a first to a second computer, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying on the first computer, software product files and product data files of said software product requiring to be prepared for future migration;

packing the software product files and product data files to be moved based on the identifying step previously executed;

operating the first computer in accordance with a general purpose thereof including by running the software product files or generating associated user files after the packing in the first computer;

further including storing data files changes and/or control information changes generated by running the software product on the first computer and additionally packing the changes for use on the second computer;

moving the software product files and the product data files to the second computer without using cloning and after the software product files and the product data files have been operationally utilized in the first computer, except for files that are manually excluded, said moving of files being carried out without resorting to examining or considering all files of said first computer including files that are not associated with said identified software product being prepared for future migration; and

unpacking the moved software product files and the product data files onto the second computer.

45. The method of claim 44, including carrying out the identifying, packing, moving and unpacking steps for a plurality of software products.

46. The method of claim 45, including carrying out said steps of identifying, packing, moving, and unpacking for a sufficient number of software products installed at the first computer such as to reproduce the software operating environment of the first computer at the second computer.

47. The method of claim 46, including carrying out said steps of identifying, packing, moving and unpacking relative to all of the software products installed at the first computer.

48. A computer-readable medium comprising a software facility for migrating the operation and functionality of a software product from a first to a second computer, the facility and software product comprising:

software product files which define the operation and functionality of the software product;

software data files which contain data associated with or resulting from the operation and functionality of the software product;

packing software operable for identifying software data files and control information requiring to be transferred to the second computer in a future migration regardless of and without restriction to said software product files and said software data files being operationally utilized in the first computer after the packing software packs the software product files, the software data files, and the control information, further including storing data files changes and/or control information changes generated by running the software product on the first computer and additionally packing the changes for use on the second computer; and

interface software for interfacing the packing software with other software that is instrumental in facilitating the replication of the software product on the second computer without using cloning and without resorting to examining or considering all files of the first computer including files not associated with said software product.

49. The software facility of claim 48, further including unpacking software that functions to unpack files to be transferred onto the second computer.

50. The software facility of claim 48, in which the packing software includes a packer program and a loader program for respectively identifying files to be moved and for controlling the migration of said software data and control files.

51. The software facility of claim 48, wherein the packing software is also operable for identifying software product files to be transferred.