moving to a new computer soon--advice?

[gba1]

After six years or so, I will be moving to new windows 10 computer shortly after Christmas.  I'm looking for advice as to how to, as easily as possible, make that transition.  I assume I'll need to redownload imatch 5.5 but does anyone have advice about moving the database and where to move it?  Or any other suggestions to keep me out of trouble?

[Mario]

See "Traveling with IMatch" in the IMatch help system. It explains how you can easily move your database and all settings from one computer to another. Manually or by using the handy Pack & Go utility included in IMatch.

[gba1]

This is really helpful and almost idiot proof.  (I'll field-test that latter point).   I really have a very simple set-up; all my photos are in a windows "my pictures" folder with many sub folders.  (Plus photos just dumped into into the my pictures folder).  I gather I do the pack and go deal first and then move the my pictures folder?

[Mario]

Yes.

Tip: Use the same Windows user name on th new machine. This way all your user-specific settings in IMatch will be available.

When you open your database for the first time on the new PC (via Database > Open) IMatch will indicate all folders in the database as off-line (yellow icon). This is because the images are now on a new disk, with a different media id. To tell IMatch that you have moved your files to a new disk, use the Relocate command on the disk. IMatch will update the database with the new media id and bring the files back on-line. Search the IMatch help system index for Relocate for details.

[gba1]

So, one issue I encountered when attempted to do the pack and move approach is that the utility wasn't able to find the folder.  And the reason is that the new machine has a different name than the old machine (makes sense once you figure it out but it's not the first thing you think of).  Once I replaced the wrong name with the right name in the documents file location string, the data base came over nicely.

I've purchased imatch 5.5 but there isn't any obvious place to plug the code in.  There must be some drop down menu somewhere that allows you to do this.  Suggestions?

(I'm sure this latter point will be blindingly obvious once someone points it out to me, thus establishing that it wasn't quite idiot proof.

[Mario]

Pack & Go automatically restores the files in their proper location (settings and presets and the like). The folder for the database has to be chosen by you.

You don't unlock IMatch 5 by typing in a code or something. Just follow the instructions in the email you have received from my distributor Share-it and download the licensed version from the photools.com customer web site. From there you can always download the most recent version of IMatch. IMatch is updated about every four weeks. It will notify you when a new update is available.