Capturing and restoring user state of Windows targets

When you complete an operating system migration on new hardware, you can restore previously captured user settings on the new system.

When you are deploying new hardware in your organization, you can capture the user state of an initial operating system on the current hardware, perform a bare metal deployment on the new hardware, and then restore the previously captured user state to the new machine. OS Deployment uses Microsoft's USMT ScanState and LoadState commands for this purpose. When you are capturing user state, you can optionally choose to modify the default ScanState arguments, capture additional file extensions, and also provide other ScanState instructions through XML file content using USMT syntax up to a maximum of 4000 characters. Captured data and logs are stored in the destination folder which must be on a network share. If access to the network share is restricted, you are required to supply the credentials at task submission time.

You can capture and restore different user state content on multiple computers with a single task. When you are capturing user state from a single computer or multiple computers, a specific capture folder identified by the computer name is created for each computer. If you are restoring user state for a single computer or multiple computers, you can choose a single restore folder for all computers, or a specific folder for each computer.

Depending on the source and destination operating systems, use one of the following task pairs:

  • If you want to capture the user state of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 computers and restore on Windows 7 or Windows 8 computers, you must have previously created an MDT Bundle with WADK8 (USMT5) and imported it using the Bundle and Media Manager dashboard. Run the following tasks:

    Capture User State on Windows XP, Vista, and 7 computers (USMT5) - Task 170

    Restore User State on Windows 7 and 8 (USMT5) - Task 171

  • If you want to capture the user state of Windows 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 computers, and restore on Windows 8, 8.1, and 10, you must have previously created an MDT Bundle with WADK10 (USMT10) and imported it using the Bundle and Media Manager Dashboard. Run the following tasks:

    Capture User State on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 (USMT10) - Task 175

    Restore User State on Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 computers (USMT10) - Task 176

For the capture tasks you must provide the following information:
  • The destination folder on the network share where the captured data must be stored, and the credentials to access the network share, if required. At capture time, a separate subfolder identified by te computer name is created for each target.
  • The task contains the following predefined ScanState command arguments: 
    /v:6 /c /localonly /o /uel:60
    You can optionally add or modify these arguments using the ScanState syntax, but BigFix does not perform any input validation.
  • You can also specify additional file extensions to include in the capture, in a comma separated list, and any other optional instructions up to a maximum of 4000 characters that are supplied to the ScanState command in xml file format. For example, if you want to capture all files contained in the path C:\test files\*:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
         <migration urlid="http://www.microsoft.com/migration/1.0/migxmlext/cust">
    <!-- Additional pattern to capture-->
         <component type="Documents" context="System">
           <displayName>Component to migrate additional files Sergio</displayName>
           <role role="Data">
             <rules>
               <include>
                 <objectSet>
       <pattern type="File">C:\test files\* [*]</pattern>
                 </objectSet>
               </include>
             </rules>
           </role>
         </component>
    </migration>

For the restore tasks, the predefined arguments are:
/lac
You can optionally add or modify the LoadState arguments but BigFix does not perform any syntax validation.

You must specify the source folder on the network share where the data to be restored resides, and the credentials to access the network share, if required. You can also select to read the user data from a separate subfolder identified by the computer name, for each target, by specifying Yes in the corresponding field.

You can add the capture and restore tasks to a Server Automation plan. For example, you can define the following sequence in a server Automation plan:
  1. Capture the source user state on a target by using task 170 or 175
  2. Set the hostname of the target where the user state will be restored using task 350
  3. Deploy the profile on the target where the user state will be restored using task 301
  4. Restore user state on the deployed target using task 171 or 176.