Transferring MS Applications from an old Win10 Laptop to a New Win 11 Laptop

Question

Transferring MS Applications from an old Win10 Laptop to a New Win 11 Laptop

David Gibson 0

I have purchased a replacement Laptop and purchased the pre-installed MS Office Software license to go with it. I would like to migrate 2 MS applications **- **Microsoft® Project 2021 and Microsoft® Visio® 2021 from my Old Laptop (Office Home & Business 2016 for PC under Win10) to my new Laptop (Office Home & Business 2024 under Win11 Pro), but the steps required are neither obvious to me or (from the various Help screens) intuitively clear. The Microsoft Accounts are different on each Laptop - which i think is a material barrier to the migration, however, if i need to Uninstall from one Laptop, to re-install on the other, I would like to be clear on the risks of not having those applications working on either laptop.

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Answer 1

Hi David,

Good day. The main point here is that Project 2021 and Visio 2021 are separate licenses from Office Home & Business 2016/2024. You don't need to copy the programs from the old laptop. They should be installed fresh on the new laptop.

The different Microsoft accounts are important, but they don't automatically prevent the transfer.

I'd recommend this order:

Don't uninstall anything from the old laptop yet. Open Project and Visio on the old laptop and go to: File > Account Check which Microsoft account is shown. This should be the account that owns the Project 2021 and Visio 2021 licenses.
Check that account's Services & subscriptions page. Sign in with that account and check whether Project 2021 and Visio 2021 are listed. If they are, you should be able to reinstall them on the new laptop without purchasing them again.
On the new laptop, keep Office Home & Business 2024 installed. Don't uninstall Office 2024 just to install Project or Visio. Install Project 2021 and Visio 2021 using the Microsoft account that owns those licenses.
Check the Office bit version first. In Word, go to File > Account > About Word and check whether Office 2024 is 32-bit or 64-bit. Project and Visio need to use the same bit version.
Only uninstall Project and Visio from the old laptop after they are working on the new one. This avoids leaving you without the applications if something goes wrong during installation.

As a summary and safe approach:

Keep the old laptop working > confirm which account owns Project/Visio > check the Office 2024 version > install Project/Visio on the new laptop > test them > then remove them from the old laptop.

You don't need to move the Project/Visio licenses to the new Microsoft account simply because you're using a different account on the new laptop. The important thing is to use the account that owns those licenses when installing and activating them.

I hope this clears and helps the issue.

Regards,
Jhun

David Gibson 0 Reputation points

2026-09-14T17:57:28.7866667+00:00

Thank You Jhun, What you say makes sense, but the Account that owns the licenses (apparently) was not on the Old Laptop when I installed Project and Visio, So I am perplexed.....

I will work through those steps recommended.

Starting with the OLD laptop ((Office Home & Business 2016 for PC under Win10) - I checked the Project and Visio Applications, and both are tied to b. below

Staying with the OLD laptop ((Office Home & Business 2016 for PC under Win10) - There are multiple Microsoft Accounts listed - 2 personal and 1 client account (as I need to keep separation between my personal stuff and my client's corp. apps and mail) - I checked the Services & subscriptions section of each of these Microsoft Accounts for;

Personal 1 (Registered Office Home & Business 2016 for PC under Win10)

Personal 2 (Registered Office Home & Business 2024 under Win11 Pro)

Client 1 - (Registered Corporate MS 365 Office)

No Apps are registered under these Microsoft Accounts. The two Applications were purchased separately and installed under the Personal 1 account, so I am surprised to see them registered to an Office suite that is not installed on that laptop.

I signed in with Personal 2 Microsoft Account - (Registered Office Home & Business 2024 under Win11 Pro) - but I can confirm that version of Office is not Installed ! There are no Apps listed under subscriptions sections

I tried to Install Project 2021 and Visio 2021 using the Microsoft account that owns those licenses, but i get the Error code 30204-44 each time

Answer 2

Hi David,

Since Project 2021 and Visio 2021 both shows Personal 2, let's assume the Personal 2 as the account associated with those licenses for now. The fact that Office 2024 isn't currently installed on the old laptop doesn't prevent Project or Visio from being activated with that account.

The 30204-44 error is a separate issue. Microsoft notes that Project, Visio and Office have to meet certain installation requirements when they are installed on the same computer. The version installation type and 32-bit-64-bit version all matter.

For now, let's not uninstall anything from the old laptop.

Let's go on the new laptop first:

On the new Windows 11 laptop, open Word or another Office application, if available, and check: File > Account > About Word Please check if it shows 32-bit or 64-bit.
Also check Control Panel > Programs and Features or, Settings > Apps > Installed apps, and see whether any Office, Project or Visio installation is already present.
Since Office Home & Business 2024 was purchased for the new laptop but isn't installed yet, it should establish the correct installation order before installing anything else.

The good thing is that you don't need to move Project or Visio by copying the programs from the old laptop. Once we confirm the Office installation on the new laptop, we can install the 2021 versions using Personal 2 and then test them before touching the old laptop.

For now, just leave the old Project and Visio installations exactly as they are. In this way, you still have a working copy while we sort out the new installation.

Jhun