Endstate vs MigrationMerlin

Endstate captures Windows applications and settings so they can be restored on another Windows PC. Scanning, saving, and restoring can all run locally and offline. It detects applications installed through EXE/MSI installers and the Microsoft Store using winget, with settings modules for 359 Windows applications. Saved setups are plain files in the user’s Documents folder that can be copied, backed up, or shared. Before restoring, users can review differences and select which detected applications and supported settings to apply. Each settings restore creates a backup that can be reverted with one click. Endstate reinstalls applications through WinGet and Chocolatey, while sponsored integrations can add settings migration support. Portable applications that are not registered in Windows are not detected. The provisioning engine is open source under Apache 2.0. The local product has no telemetry, tracking, or background reporting, and sends no data off the computer unless Endstate Cloud is enabled. The free plan costs 0.00 EUR forever, needs no account, and covers unlimited machines. Endstate Cloud is in early access and not generally available.

MigrationMerlin is a free Windows tool for moving user state between PCs, aimed at sysadmins and power users. It wraps Microsoft’s User State Migration Tool, including scanstate.exe and loadstate.exe, and provides an arrow-key-driven text interface plus numbered batch wrappers for step-by-step migration. Both source and destination PCs must run Windows 10 or Windows 11, have administrator privileges, and be reachable on the same network with SMB port 445 open. The tool can configure an SMB transfer share on the destination PC, including a firewall rule. IncludeUsers and ExcludeUsers options let users select profiles. ExtraData can include taskbar pins, Wi-Fi profiles, power plans, and items covered by custom migration XML. Migration stores can be encrypted with AES-256, but the README says there is no recovery path if the key is lost. During capture and restore, the tool displays progress, file counts, and throughput. It writes transcript logs to the migration folder’s Logs directory and masks credentials in those logs. The project is MIT-licensed and distributes downloadable ZIP artifacts through rolling GitHub releases.