Transferring Installed Programs From One Computer to Another on Windows 11 (Step-by-Step Guidance)

A user from Microsoft Community seeks help about "I want to transfer programs only from a Windows 10 pc to a new Windows11 PC, how can I do that?" Indeed, as technology advances, many users are upgrading to the latest Windows 11 operating system. Whether you've updated your old computer or bought a brand new one, transferring your installed programs can be a daunting task. 

Should you have to reinstall them one by one? Of course not! If you choose the right way, it is quite easy to transfer programs to new computer. This guide will show you 3 simple ways to easily transfer your programs from one Windows 11 computer to another. How to do that? Here's coming.

3 Ways for how to transfer programs from one computer to another

In this part, you can learn to transfer programs to new computer for Windows 11 with USB drive or an external hard drive, log in Microsoft account, and using a handy software to move the installed programs.

Way 1. Transfer program with USB drive or an external hard drive

If you only need to move a few applications, files, photos, or music, using a USB drive or external hard drive is a quick and easy solution. Just make sure the storage device has enough space for your files.

Before beginning, please prepare a USB drive or an external hard drive, and ensure it has enough space for operation. Using this method to transfer programs is just applicable to few data, if you need to move large installed programs from one computer to another, please move on to the next two parts.

Step 1. Insert the USB or external hard drive to the source PC and make sure it is detected by the device.

Step 2. Find target program and Zip all the files and programs. Then Copy and Paste them to the drive.

Step 3. Click “Safely eject the USB drive” from the source device. And connect it to the target computer.

Step 4. Copy and Paste the files again on your the PC. Now, you need to adjust the program settings and reactivate the applications.

Way 2. Transfer programs to new computer Windows 11 via logging in Microsoft account

One convenient way for transferring installed programs from one computer to another Windows 11 is by using your Microsoft account. This method allows you to easily reinstall many of your previously installed apps and access your files stored in the cloud. With this simple process, you can effectively move programs.  Here's how to do it:

Step 1. Log in your Microsoft account. You can find all the installed applications in the list of Microsoft Store.

Step 2. Simultaneously press “Win+I” to perform “Settings”.

Step 3. Choose “APPs & Features”. And you can find all the programs in the window.

Step 4. Select the installed programs you want to transfer, and click “Move” button. Then choose a destination drive and hit “Move” button again.

Step5. When you successfully transfer programs to a new computer, they will appear on the USB drive or the removable disk. Then, insert the pen drive into the target computer and copy the applications on the new one.

Way 3. Easy way for transferring installed programs from one computer to another Windows 11

The methods described above for transferring installed programs between Windows 11 computers only partly fulfill our hopes. Firstly, they only move the installation files, meaning you'll still have to take time to reinstall programs on the new computer. What's more, these methods won't work for non-portable applications.

But if you choose AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, things will get changed. You can easily move multiple installed programs at once, even if there are bad sectors. All you need is to prepare the old and new drive on your Windows 11 computer and then follow the clear guidance to transfer programs.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Clone" in the main interface and select "Clone Disk".

Step 2. Choose the hard disk that you need to clone as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the destination disk to store the data on the source disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to “Sector to Sector clone”, and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of SSD if the target disk is an SSD drive.

Step 5. At last, click "Apply" and "Proceed" in the main interface to start cloning the hard drive.

Further reading: How to move installed programs on the same drive

The Disk Clone Wizard is convenient for people to transfer programs between two computers. But if people just have the demand of releasing the drive space on one computer, the ideal consideration can be to move programs or folders to another drive.

The APP Mover function of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional allows users to transfer all kinds of files, including pictures, videos, programs, folders, etc., without losing data. You can tick and transfer them simultaneously with simple clicks, which only take a few seconds, and if you accidentally transfer some unwanted files, you can also click the “Restore” button to retrieve them.

Conclusion

The methods of transferring installed programs from one computer to another Windows 11 have been introduced in detail. In short, using AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to transfer programs is an effective method.

This software also boasts other mighty functions like extending C drive space, converting MBR/GPT, migrating OS to SSD, and so on. In addition, if Windows Server users expect to use this robust software on their devices, the Server Edition supports working for Server 2022/2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2)/2003.