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Identify users

It's important to carefully consider and plan how users are migrated. By default, User State Migration Tool (USMT) migrates all users. Which users to include must be specified by using the command line. Users can't be specified in the .xml files. For instructions on how to migrate users, see Migrate user accounts.

Migrating local accounts

Before migrating local accounts, be aware of the following items:

  • Local accounts that aren't on the destination computer must be explicitly specified if they should be migrated. If migrating local accounts and the local account doesn't exist on the destination computer, the /lac option must be specified when using the LoadState.exe command. If the /lac option isn't specified, no local user accounts are migrated.

  • Consider whether to enable user accounts that are new to the destination computer. The /lae option enables the account that was created with the /lac option. However, if a disabled local account is created by using only the /lac option, a local administrator must enable the account on the destination computer.

  • Be careful when specifying a password for local accounts. If the local account is created with a blank password, anyone could sign in that account on the destination computer. If the local account is created with a password, the password is available to anyone with access to the USMT command-line tools.

Note

If there are multiple users on a computer, and a password is specified with the /lac option, all migrated users have the same password.

Migrating domain accounts

The source and destination computers don't need to be connected to the domain for domain user profiles to be migrated.

Command-line options

USMT provides several options to migrate multiple users on a single computer. The following command-line options specify which users to migrate.

  • Specifying users. Which users to migrate can be specified with the /all, /ui, /uel, and /ue options with both the ScanState and LoadState command-line tools.

    Important

    The /uel option excludes users based on the LastModified date of the Ntuser.dat file. The /uel option isn't valid in offline migrations.

  • Moving users to another domain. User accounts can be moved to another domain using the /md option with the LoadState command-line tool.

  • Creating local accounts. Local accounts can be created and enabled using the /lac and /lae options with the LoadState command-line tool.

  • Renaming user accounts. User accounts can be renamed using the /mu option.

    Note

    By default, if a user name isn't specified in any of the command-line options, the user is migrated.