Abstract: Migration of data relevant to, or associated with, one or more users from a prior operating system installation to a new operating system installation can be performed with reference to an archive of some or all of the data on a storage media made prior to the installation of a new operating system. Manifests associated with operating system components can be referenced to identify data to be transferred from those operating system components to new versions of those components. Independently generated manifests can also be referenced to migrate the files and data for one or more application programs, such as popular or commonly found application programs. User data and files to be migrated can be identified by loading registration database files from the offline operating system in the new operating system, or otherwise parsing a similar construct from the offline operating system.

Abstract: Migration of data relevant to, or associated with, one or more users from a prior operating system installation to a new operating system installation can be performed with reference to an archive of some or all of the data on a storage media made prior to the installation of a new operating system. Manifests associated with operating system components can be referenced to identify data to be transferred from those operating system components to new versions of those components. Independently generated manifests can also be referenced to migrate the files and data for one or more application programs, such as popular or commonly found application programs. User data and files to be migrated can be identified by loading registration database files from the offline operating system in the new operating system, or otherwise parsing a similar construct from the offline operating system.

Abstract: User state migration using file system hard links system and method. A file system hard link refers to a directory entry for a file that allow a file to be referenced by two or more separate filenames, without data of the file being stored in two or more places. A user state gather component receives information associated with user state (e.g., file and, optionally, setting(s)). The user state gather component stores a hard link to the file in a user state store. A user state apply component restores user state based on the hard link to the file stored in the user state store. For example, the user state apply component can restore user state once an operating system has been installed. Optionally, the system includes a plurality of user state stores that are linked together.