Cant use windows 8.1 Windows Easy Transfer on Windows 8.1

Hi,

Windows Easy Transfer is removed from Windows 8.1.

Items that now can be easily transfered by using SkyDrive in combination with other services and tools, such as Xbox Music to back up your music collection, and File History to keep files always backup and up-to-date.

You may refer to the thread link and the suggestions provided by Michael Day [MSFT].

Windows Easy Transfer (Win 8.1)

Let us know if you need further assistance with Windows related issues. We will be happy to help.

I believe this post will never be seen by the public, but there is no good way of voicing my concerns over this.

My role as a sys admin, in part, requires that I help deploy and migrate users to new machines as their old ones break down or are due for replacement. Windows Easy Transfer has been my go to solution for migrating user data. Anyone that has had to migrate users to new machines knows that their grasp on where their data is stored is tenuous at best. Windows Easy Transfer was a fantastic tool for this, as it would grab not just the entirety of their user profile (and amazing things like where their desktop icons were located on their monitors...again, it's amazing how regular users can't find an icon if it gets moved on their desktop), and if you asked it to anything that was not part of the standard Windows install (users that save information to the C drive instead of their My Documents, or a mapped drive on a file server). I say all of that to say this.

Skydrive is in no way a replacement for Windows Easy Transfer in a domain setting. My users do not use a Microsoft account to sign in to their systems. We have dozens of Windows Servers for AD, file services, Remote Desktop Services, Etc. Etc. The expectation here that of potentially hundreds or thousands of client machines in a corporate network sync all their user data through skydrive is misguided at best, and in reality a complete oversight for the team responsible for making this decision.

Microsoft, you made your name by being excellent in the corporate environment. I can monitor our servers much better with WinRM 3.0, have used Deployment Services and the MDT to upgrade workstations and deploy new systems. My main point with this post is to point out that you are missing the forest for the trees. Please, when you are making decisions on when to deprecate features remember your corporate roots. The hundreds of thousands of sys admins and desktop support specialists that work with the systems you build on a daily basis. Decisions like this can't help but make me believe that you no longer care about the corporate environments that have come to rely on your systems for the running of their business.

I believe this post will never be seen by the public, but there is no good way of voicing my concerns over this.

*grin*

Then you don't realize where you posted (worldwide public peer-to-peer forum.)

It has been seen by "the public" and probably only the public.  ;-)

Well thanks for all the replies.  It does appear that at least for now WET is gone.

I was going to say that you probably can't believe how pissed off I am right now, having to do file transfers on two computers (yeah, only two right now), and not be able to use WET.    But I'm glad I came across your post --- I'm not the only pissed off administrator out there.

Microsoft of late has given the finger to small business.    No more SBS.   Can't use Exchange Server on same server as Server 2012 without extra fuss.   MS is trying to force everyone to use Skydrive (I won't let my users use it for business) and Office 365.    Getting really disgusted.