Migrating to a new PC can bring all kinds of hassles, and transferring user profiles is particularly awkward– especially as the old Windows Easy Transfer applet was discontinued in Windows 10.

Transwiz is a freeware wizard-based tool which simplifies the process, backing up and restoring user profiles in a very few clicks.

The program is a single executable and doesn’t require installation, which makes it easy to get started.

Basic use is straightforward. Choose a user profile to back up, a destination file name, and your data is archived.

There are also hassles. You’ll probably want to back up the profile you’re using, right? But you can’t, because it’s in use, so you’ll have to switch to (and maybe create) another.

A simple wizard keeps operations to a minimum: just “save to here” or “open from there”

There’s no fine control in the freeware version of Transwiz, either. You can’t tell the program to ignore this folder or that file type– it archives everything.

This does make life simple, though. Transwiz saves your data to a plain ZIP archive rather than a proprietary format, so it’s easy to examine and access yourself. And it’ll burn the file to CDs or DVDs if asked.

Restoration is equally straightforward, and the program is intelligent enough to convert older profiles to use the new naming conventions in later editions of Windows. Whatever version you’re using, or 64-bit, it should just work.

Reliability is particularly important with this kind of low-level tool, and while that’s hard to assess, the developer is better than most. This isn’t some 15-year-old’s first open-source project: ForensiT produces very capable migration tools for big business, and they really do know what they’re doing.

Transwiz is a freeware application for Windows XP and later.