- A PC-to-PC migration feature is found in a new Windows 10 advance view
- However, it is not enabled in testing and is hidden in the background
- However, Windows -Insids have made it work in a way and we could see that it is arriving soon
Microsoft is preparing a PC-to-PC migration feature for Windows 10, previously discovered in testing (with Windows 11, which it should also debut), and it could be with us soon.
Of course, bringing such a capacity makes sense because Windows 10 reaches the end of the line to support in October 2025 so Microsoft wants to make it as easy as possible for them on the older OS to switch to a new PC running Windows 11 (provided they cannot upgrade their current computer to the latter).
This functionality is part of the existing backup app in Windows 10, and it is called ‘Transfer Information to a new PC’ – though I should note that it is not fully in the test yet and it may well be a placeholder name.
Leaker Phantomofearth discovered the feature of the latest Windows 10 Build in the Release Preview Channel (version 19045.6029).
Not surprisingly, Windows Migration comes to Windows 10 to make it easier to move to 11 when we get closer to EOL. The migration stream in the backup app is hidden in today’s RP CU (19045.6029), may be enabled with Function ID 5624279. Pic.twitter.com/23q3f1kl0mJune 12, 2025
Windows last noticed the above post on X and activated the migration function itself and observed that it is not working yet – which is hardly surprising as it is not officially live, even in the test right now.
However, Fantomofearth showed a few screens of the X, which you can see above, and Windows latest has played with what’s in place for this feature and decides how it works.
To move data (and settings) from your current Windows 10 -PC to a new Windows 11 device, both computers must be on the same network. It may mean that they are connected wirelessly, or possibly also via a cable connection (support for the latter is not sure yet, but it seems probably enough for me).
Then use a code to confirm the connection between the two PCs (make sure you have the correct target device), select the data you want to migrate (it is not yet clear what options will be available) and the transfer continues.
Analysis: The potential scrapeeap on the horizon
Usually, with a feature hidden in a test structure like this one – one that needs to be activated using a Windows configuration tool – I would expect to have a good wait for it to actually arrive. Remember, of course, it should be live in tests first before it reaches the finished version of Windows 10.
In this case, however, it is worth noting that the release test is the last phase of preview -Builds before release (as the name indicates). When activated, while PC-to-PC migration ability also warns that it is still “in user test” (where Microsoft means internal testing in the business) and is not working properly, the text adds that the “full version [is] coming soon. “
So we should get this before rather than later, which I have already touched, makes sense. Mainly because Microsoft definitely wants this feature in place when Windows 10 reaches its end of life, which is only four months away, to help people migrate to a new Windows 11 PC (if they can’t upgrade to the newer OS, because of their current device that doesn’t meet the hardware requirements).
As you may have noticed, Microsoft has obviously been engaged in a wider campaign to push the sale of new Windows 11 -PCs (especially Copilot+ devices), and it has proven to be controversial. Accusations have been smoothed by the us producer of sliding environmental problems, and a potential towering mountain of scraped PCs on the way to landfill unless Windows 10 PC owners can find an alternative to buying a new computer coming October 2025.
There is an official escape route: to pay for a further year of security updates for Windows 10, even if it just kicks the can down the line in some way. But of late, there has been a lot of focus on upgrading to Linux instead, and campaigns to switch away from the Windows ecosystem quite a way to keep older hardware alive and kick.
In some ways, it will be interesting to see how this is playing out, but the potential environmental impact is not a comforting view. My hope is that Microsoft may find it appropriate to give extended security updates to over a year for consumers running Windows 10, without charging a fortune for privilege – though I am not so hope that this will become a reality.
