CFO's 4-year-old laptop showing signs of imminent SSD failure (SMART warnings, random freezes). New laptop approved and delivered. Now the pressure: migrate everything - documents, browser bookmarks, Outlook signatures, app settings, desktop layout - without losing anything. User is executive-level, zero tolerance for "I lost my files."

Manual copy misses AppData, registry settings, and app configurations. OneDrive sync only covers Documents. Need complete profile migration that captures everything user has customized over 4 years.

Microsoft's User State Migration Tool (USMT) - the enterprise standard for profile migrations. Captures full user state, encrypts for transfer, restores to new machine.

USMT's ScanState captures, LoadState restores. Supports cross-version migrations (Win10 to Win11). Encrypted migration store protects data in transit.

Ran ScanState on old laptop (35 min), transferred migration store to network share, ran LoadState on new laptop (45 min). CFO logged in, everything exactly as before - same desktop, same bookmarks, same Outlook signatures. Old laptop decommissioned safely.

PC replacement or fleet refresh? We migrate user profiles completely so users are productive immediately on new hardware.