Moving Your WS_FTP Pro software from Windows XP to Vista Computer

 By Cathy Margolin,

Reviews Editor, reviews@Netsurfernews.com

When my Windows XP PC was in the process of having problems, I had to move all my applications over to my second machine which was running Vista Business 64 bit. I had been moving most applications over, but there were still a few that I had not yet upgraded, such as WS_FTP Pro, since I had to upgrade my license.  I had copied over all my data (I always keep my data on D drive so if I have to format the C drive it will leave my data pristine).

But the big issue was how to copy over all my 40 some FTP sites into the new Vista file naming system?

It was not super easy- the import did not work (Tools, Import) since I did not have a working FTP in the Vista Machine. I did have all the WS-FTP site (as .ini files) in a folder on the Vista machine.

This may be a brute force way but it worked and that counts for a lot when you have to upload to your websites.

Install WS_FTP Pro on the Vista PC. It will put your sites in a folder called:

C:\Users\<username of computer>\AppData\Roaming\Ipswitch\WS_FTP\Sites\

But how do I move my sites over? It starts with a ws_ftp.ini file in that folder.

Open up WS-FTP, Under the File menu, hit connect, and pull down to Site Manager. Click on Sites at the top of the directory tree, and hit Create Folder. Type in the name of the site, just as you had it in the old system (use the name of the xxxxx.ini file from the old system) . I had Margolin.ini in my old site files, so I created a folder called Margolin. It then automatically created a file in the new  site folder called Margolin.ini  in the folder

c:\Users\<username of computer>\AppData\Roaming\Ipswitch\WS_FTP\Sites\

I opened the old Margolin.ini file and copied everything EXCEPT the top three lines (which were on the old system:

[_config_]

parent=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Ipswitch\WS_FTP\Sites\ ws_ftp.ini

createdate=08.07.2006

and pasted that information into the new Margolin.ini on the Vista PC under:

c:\Users\<username of computer>\AppData\Roaming\Ipswitch\WS_FTP\Sites\Margolin.ini

 again LEAVING THE first 3 Lines intact in the new file.  The first three lines of the new Margolin.ini should be:

[_config_]

parent=C:\Users\<usernameofComputer>\AppData\Roaming\Ipswitch\WS_FTP\Sites\ws_ftp.ini

createdate=02.07.2008

and added all the other information from the old Margolin.ini file except for the first 3 lines.

I then went back into WS_FTP and opened to site to test it. I did have to set the security on some of the new SSL sites but that was just checking the right button when it asked for the security.

So yes, you can move your site from one computer to another, from Windows XP to Vista and make it work. One thing that made it easier for me was that all my website data files were on D drive under the same directory- on both the old machine and the new machine, so I did not have to make any date file reference changes.  Your experience may vary…