Moving my TPC to a new Windows 10 computer

[John Smith]

Well, I’ve been on Windows 7 for a long, long time and I hate change so I don’t want to update my Windows. But now, with Microsoft ending support for Windows 7 soon (which means I will be more vulnerable to malicious programs online), I’m biting the bullet and buying a new Windows 10 computer. How hard will it be to move TPC to the new computer and how do I do it?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for asking the question, John. I’ll bet that we will be seeing this question frequently before and after the end of the year.

Moving Traverse PC from one computer to another is no big deal with TPC Desktop. You shouldn’t experience any major issues, even when moving from an older operating system such as Windows 7 to a newer operating system such as Windows 10 as long as you understand the process.

First, you will want to find and copy all of your survey files and data. You should use Windows File Explorer to access the location you keep your data files in (usually Documents\Surveys\) and copy the entire folder to a USB thumb drive or other removable media to paste it into a different computer.

Second, you will want to find and copy all of your customized program data. All of your program data files (such as drawing templates, saved Traverse Drawing Settings, saved Traverse Formats and many others) are stored in Traverse PC’s Program Data folder. The default location is C:\ProgramData\Traverse PC\TPC Desktop \ (See NOTEs below.) You should use Windows File Explorer to access that location and copy the entire folder to a USB thumb drive or other removable media to paste it into a different computer.

Finally, you will install and validate TPC Desktop on the new computer. All of your downloads and license keys are available in your License Manager.
Downloads tab – download and install any version of TPC you are licensed to use.
License tab – find the active license you need to use, click Manage Sites and choose Deactivate Site.
License tab – copy and paste the license key to TPC Desktop to validate it.
The How To tab – contains short videos showing how to do many things

That’s all there is to it, you’re done!

NOTE: The default program data path is to a folder called ProgramData in the root of the C: drive. There are no spaces in the folder name so in an alphabetized list, it shows up after the Program Files folders.

NOTE: To find out where your TPC Program Data is stored, in TPC Desktop, choose Tools | Program Settings and go to the Program Data tab. The path to your program data is shown in the first field. The default location (which you will see if you haven’t set a different location is C:\ProgramData\Traverse PC\TPC Desktop \

NOTE: You will want to paste the copied folder into the same location on the new computer and set the appropriate Program Data path in the Program Settings if you want the new computer set up the same way the original computer was set up.

NOTE: The default ProgramData folder is hidden automatically by Microsoft so if you do not see it in the root of the C: drive, you will need to change the Windows File Explorer view options to show it to you. In Windows 10, choose View | Options, go to the View tab and in the Advanced settings window, under Hidden files and folders, choose Show hidden files, folders and drives and choose OK. (Note that other Windows versions may have different steps but they are similar. In Windows 7, it is located under Organize | Folder and search options)

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