Mass Migration IE6-IE7 Scripts?

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

CL-1892

2009-06-19 09:38:01 UTC

Hi

I am moving 500+ users from their current PC that has IE6 to new machines
that are already imaged with IE7. I am only concerned with retaining their
Cookies and Favorites.

Does anyone have any scripts or recomendations on how best to do this? I am
looking at the USMT tool at the moment, but not sure if this is going to
work, especially given the version change, and it is a bit tricky to
configure to say the least!

thnx

ANONYMOUS

2009-06-19 22:43:01 UTC

Permalink

The best way to deal with this is to put onus on users to copy their
favorites and documents (if they are not on the server) on a flash drive and
when the new system is ready for them, they should copy these back on the new
system.

You need to give them step by step instructions in writing because some of
them are likely to be pigs like our own "Most Valuable Pigs".

Why do you want to copy cookies? Cookies can always be recreated unlike
favorites which can't unless one has photographic memory!

Hope this helps.

Post by CL-1892
Hi
I am moving 500+ users from their current PC that has IE6 to new machines
that are already imaged with IE7. I am only concerned with retaining their
Cookies and Favorites.
Does anyone have any scripts or recomendations on how best to do this? I am
looking at the USMT tool at the moment, but not sure if this is going to
work, especially given the version change, and it is a bit tricky to
configure to say the least!
thnx

Richard

2009-06-29 10:25:47 UTC

Permalink

Hello? There was already one reply less than 14 hours after you posted. Are
you checking back for replies? If you have found a solution elsewhere, it
would be good to let the people following this thread know, so they don't
keep holding their breath. (Whew! :)

If, as was suggested, you have each of your users export their own cookies
and favorites, there are a couple things to keep in mind. (FYI: The "Import
and Export" option is on the Internet Explorer File menu.) The apparent
original purpose of the export option in IE6 was to transfer cookies or
favorites to or from Netscape browsers. The favorites are exported to a
"bookmark.htm" file, which is essentially a web page with clickable links,
and a lot of extra data in the html tags. The extra data does NOT include
the favicon.ico associations of the bookmarks, so after importing them into
IE7, they will all appear with the generic Internet Explorer "e" icon. The
only cookies any user needs would be those few that store custom
preferences, or "remember my password" info for particular web sites. (They
don't need the "tracking" cookies.) You can see the Netscape connection if
you open either of those two exported files with NotePad:

- - -
From bookmark.htm--
<!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>

<TITLE>Bookmarks</TITLE>

From cookies.txt--
# Internet Explorer cookie file, exported for Netscape browsers.
- - -

I'm not aware of any problems exporting or importing cookies, but some
people have reported minor problems in IE7 importing favorites. In one case,
the 3-letter filetype extension appeared with the name of the bookmarks, in
the form "PageTitle.url", instead of "PageTitle", even though the Internet
Shortcut filetype, (in Folder Options> File Types,) did NOT have the "Always
show extension" option checked. And, as noted above, the icon associations
are lost.

When exporting cookies or favorites from IE6, the default suggested location
to save the exported file to, is the current user's "My Documents" folder,
so when you transfer the contents of the user's My Documents folder and
sub-folders to the new computer, the exported files will be transferred
also, and be available for importing into IE7. You might want to encourage
your users to get in the habit of regularly exporting current copies of
their cookies and favorites. Then, whenever you regularly backup files in My
Documents, the exported files will be backed up too. Of course you could
include the actual Cookies folder and Favorites folder in your routine
backups also.

Keep in mind that the Cookies folder has a special "Index.dat" file that
keeps track of the Cookies, which also needs to be copied to any new Cookies
folder. (That is not a problem with the import/export method.) The Favorites
folder has a super-hidden "desktop.ini" file, which you might NOT want to
copy to a new Favorites folder that already has its own desktop.ini file.
BTW: You can open the Favorites folder, and directly drag and drop links
into the folder, and they will show up immediately in the IE favorites left
panel display, or the menu Favorites dropdown display.

(Triple-Click here to: Have a nice day! :)
--Richard

CL-1892

2009-07-08 15:36:01 UTC

Permalink

Hi All,

thanks for the messages, been away until today!

The total users involved here is actually 22,000 so giving each one a usb
stick or expecting them to participate in the migration is not really
practical. Although USMT version 3 has removed the functionality of cookies
migration as standard, this can still be acheived by editing the standard
.xml file with the script below. Whether it works between IE6- IE7 is still
unresolved. I suspect some tweaking will be required. thanks for all the
replies:

Migrating Cookies

<component type="Documents" context="User">
<displayName _locID="miguser.Cookies">Cookies</displayName>
<paths>
<path type="File">%csidl_cookies%</path>
</paths>
<role role="Settings">
<detects>
<detect>
<condition>MigXmlHelper.DoesObjectExist("File","%csidl_cookies%")
</condition>
</detect>
</detects>
<rules>
<include filter='MigXmlHelper.IgnoreIrrelevantLinks()'>
<objectSet>
<pattern type="File">%csidl_cookies%\* [*]</pattern>
</objectSet>
</include>
</rules>
</role>
</component>

Post by Richard

Hello? There was already one reply less than 14 hours after you posted. Are
you checking back for replies? If you have found a solution elsewhere, it
would be good to let the people following this thread know, so they don't
keep holding their breath. (Whew! :)
If, as was suggested, you have each of your users export their own cookies
and favorites, there are a couple things to keep in mind. (FYI: The "Import
and Export" option is on the Internet Explorer File menu.) The apparent
original purpose of the export option in IE6 was to transfer cookies or
favorites to or from Netscape browsers. The favorites are exported to a
"bookmark.htm" file, which is essentially a web page with clickable links,
and a lot of extra data in the html tags. The extra data does NOT include
the favicon.ico associations of the bookmarks, so after importing them into
IE7, they will all appear with the generic Internet Explorer "e" icon. The
only cookies any user needs would be those few that store custom
preferences, or "remember my password" info for particular web sites. (They
don't need the "tracking" cookies.) You can see the Netscape connection if
- - -
From bookmark.htm--
<!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>

<TITLE>Bookmarks</TITLE>
From cookies.txt--
# Internet Explorer cookie file, exported for Netscape browsers.
- - -
I'm not aware of any problems exporting or importing cookies, but some
people have reported minor problems in IE7 importing favorites. In one case,
the 3-letter filetype extension appeared with the name of the bookmarks, in
the form "PageTitle.url", instead of "PageTitle", even though the Internet
Shortcut filetype, (in Folder Options> File Types,) did NOT have the "Always
show extension" option checked. And, as noted above, the icon associations
are lost.
When exporting cookies or favorites from IE6, the default suggested location
to save the exported file to, is the current user's "My Documents" folder,
so when you transfer the contents of the user's My Documents folder and
sub-folders to the new computer, the exported files will be transferred
also, and be available for importing into IE7. You might want to encourage
your users to get in the habit of regularly exporting current copies of
their cookies and favorites. Then, whenever you regularly backup files in My
Documents, the exported files will be backed up too. Of course you could
include the actual Cookies folder and Favorites folder in your routine
backups also.
Keep in mind that the Cookies folder has a special "Index.dat" file that
keeps track of the Cookies, which also needs to be copied to any new Cookies
folder. (That is not a problem with the import/export method.) The Favorites
folder has a super-hidden "desktop.ini" file, which you might NOT want to
copy to a new Favorites folder that already has its own desktop.ini file.
BTW: You can open the Favorites folder, and directly drag and drop links
into the folder, and they will show up immediately in the IE favorites left
panel display, or the menu Favorites dropdown display.
(Triple-Click here to: Have a nice day! :)
--Richard