Migration of computer personalization information

Details Migration of computer personalization information Migration of computer personalization information

2001-01-29

2004-09-21

Metjahic, Safet (Department: 2171)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C707S793000, C709S220000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06795835

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to computer personalization information, and, more particularly, to a migration tool and methods for migrating computer personalization information from one computer to another.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1
illustrates a computer
100
having a processor
102
, and also having memory such as RAM and ROM memory
104
which is accessible to the processor
102
. The computer
100
includes user I/O components
106
, such as a keyboard, monitor or other display, mouse, and/or other I/O device(s) intended to let the computer
100
exchange data with a human user. System I/O components
108
on a given computer
100
may include a diskette drive, IOMEGA Zip disk drive, serial port, parallel port, Universal Serial Bus (“USB”) port, infrared port, radio frequency (“RF”) port, network connection, and/or other I/O device(s) intended to permit data exchanges between the computer
100
and another device.
The computer
100
also has a “disk”
110
, which may include one or more magnetic disks or other nonvolatile storage media. The disk
110
will often have space
112
which is not yet allocated for use by file system structures
114
or use by the data that is organized by those structures
114
. As discussed below and elsewhere herein, the data on the disk
110
typically includes both generic data
116
and personalization data
118
.
Examples of generic information
116
include much operating system software, file system software, peripheral device drivers, application software, and their associated help files, associated graphics or sound files, and so on, although each of these may often also be customized in some manner by the inclusion of some personalization information
118
. Generic information
116
may be generic because it is being used by many people, or it may be generic because it is in a form suited for installation or use by an as-yet-unspecified person.
For instance, computer vendors typically install an operating system, a set of business applications, some games, and other software on a machine
100
. This may be done before the machine is purchased, or it may be done after purchase by using disk images and/or templates that are also used for many or all of the other machines being configured for other purchasers. In either case, most of the installed software information is not specific to any particular person or any particular computer, in the sense that it is interchangeable with copies of that information installed on other computers. Packaged software is also generic, in the sense that much or all of its behavior has not yet been tailored to a specific person or organization.
By contrast, personalization information
118
includes information that pertains specifically to a given user or specific subset of all users. Examples include: personal information such as a user's name, a licensee/owner's business name, and contact information such as postal or email addresses and telephone numbers; personal preferences of the type typically set through software tools such as “Options”, “Preferences”, “Customize”, or similar menu entries; passwords; user data, such as spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases, contact lists, address books, and word processor files created by a particular user or by a business or personal contact of the user; and tailored system configuration data, such as programs to run on starting the system
100
, other system settings, Ethernet or IP addresses, licensed software serial numbers or Security IDs, and information of the type found in the config.sys,*.ini, autoexec.bat, and registry files in many Microsoft operating system environments.
Various tools and techniques focused on managing personalization information are conventionally known, including examples such as: tools for editing a registry; tools for preventing transmission of personal information such as a social security number or credit card number; tools for recovering forgotten passwords; and various tools for saving and restoring information from files such as WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, CONFIG. SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and the Microsoft Windows Registry.
In particular, tools and techniques for migrating personalization information between computers are known. For instance, as illustrated in
FIG. 2
, tools and techniques are available for reading personalization data
118
(
FIG. 1
) from a source computer
200
(FIG.
2
), sending it over a network connection to a network server
202
, and then sending it from the server
202
over a network connection to a destination computer
204
. In a peer-to-peer network, personalization data
118
may similarly be sent over a network connection from the source computer
200
directly to the destination computer
204
.
As illustrated in
FIG. 3
, tools and techniques are also available for transferring personalization data
118
from a source computer
300
to a destination computer
304
when the computers
300
,
304
do not necessarily have network connections. Using a system I/O device
108
(
FIG. 1
) such as a tape drive or diskette drive, the personalization data
118
is sent to an intermediate storage medium
302
by a transport application
306
that runs on the computers
300
,
304
. Unlike the network transfer scenario, the transport application
306
in this case does not necessarily run on both computers
300
,
304
at the same time.
Various types of transport applications
306
exist, such as disk imaging applications
306
, migration applications
306
, and registry management applications
306
. Disk imaging applications
306
read the disk
110
of the source computer
300
and create an image of the disk
110
on the storage
302
. The image can then be restored to the source computer
300
after the data on that computer is damaged, for instance. The image can also be copied to the disk of a different computer, such as the destination computer
304
. The image often includes personalization data
118
. However, disk imaging applications
306
do not normally distinguish between generic data
116
and personalization data
118
, although users may be able to specify which partitions or files are imaged or restored from an image.
Migration applications
306
are specifically designed to transfer application programs, system settings, application settings, data files, and applications between machines. However, other types of personalization data
118
are not necessarily identified, much less transferred. Conventional migration applications
306
also run on the source and destination computers, and use either a network connection or unassisted intermediate storage
302
to transfer the data
118
. Thus, resource and security constraints are imposed.
Registry management applications
306
likewise permit one to transfer specified application programs and their associated information from one computer
300
to another computer
304
. The associated information includes information kept in the registry on Microsoft Windows systems. Registry information is an example of personalization data
118
. However, registry management applications
306
do not necessarily identify personalization data
118
that is not needed to transfer an application program between computers. Moreover, registry management applications
306
run on the source
300
and destination
304
computers, using the underlying operating system and file system of the computers
300
,
304
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a migration tool and methods for migrating computer personalization information from one computer to another when a network is not available, when a network is available but use of the network is undesirable for some reason, and/or when the computer which is the source of the data being migrated has limited or unknown resources to support conventional forms of data migration.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the problem of migrating personalization information from one computer to another. More particul

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