I am having issues with my current PC and am probably going to have to purchase a new one. I have a small business and will need to transfer both programs and files to the new computer. I have found programs and cables to transfer files but nothing to transfer programs. What program or cable is available for purchase to handle this task?
:rolleyes:

There is no "cable" to transfer either programs or data.
This is the type of thing you would do over a network. You might want to look into using the windows files and settings transfer wizard. Windows XP and vista have this utility.

You can't really transfer programs; a program is installed to the computer it's used on and the registry is modified. However, the FASTW will modify the registry on the new computer.

however, the hardware on the new computer and old computer should be very similar or identical to avoid driver issues.

:p Hey Heartborne, thanks so much for your response. It sounds like I'm going to have to purchase a new payroll program to install on the new computer. That is, if I can't get this one 'in tune'. I have another question under the Case, Power and Cooling section maybe you could help me with. Thanks, again.

Do you have the original install media for the payroll program?

While it is true that many programs don't transfer, some do. Without knowing the specifics, one way to check is have the old drive hooked up to the new machine and, using Explorer, find the executable for the program and try to run it. If it runs, then you can probably copy it to the new system.

an excellent point by mjc, and kudos to him on catching that. With some programs it is as simple as copying the folder that the program lives in and running it on the new computer.

Your best bet is to copy it to a network share and transfer it to the new computer from there and see if it runs.