Installing ProShow and Moving Shows to a New Computer

You’ve just upgraded to a brand new computer and now you’re ready to install ProShow and move all your shows to your new computer.  In this article we will cover what you need to know in order to make this transition as smooth as possible.

Upgrading to a new system has many benefits, more processing power for your photo and video editing applications, more memory to handle multiple tasks at a time (i.e. running more than one program) and of course more storage space to save all of your content and slide show projects for ProShow.

Setting up a new computer can be a tedious process. Installing software, transferring data and learning to navigate a new operating system all at the same time can present its fair share of challenges.

Our goal is to get ProShow up and running on your new computer with minimal down time so you can continue working on your slide show projects during the transition. So let’s get started!

The Game Plan!

Before we install ProShow on your new computer, there are a couple items we need to check off our list in order to make sure we are fully prepared to install ProShow and move all your shows to the new computer.

Locate your product registration key for ProShow

Make sure you have your product registration key on hand. You will enter this key when installing ProShow on your new computer. You can find your registration key on your order receipt, your products section of your online member account , or you can request your key via email using the lost registration key utility on our website.

Verify your version of ProShow works with the new operating system

What version of ProShow are you running? Go to Help > About ProShow to get the version installed on your current computer. If you are running an older version of ProShow (4.x and earlier) it may not function properly on a newer operating system. ProShow versions 6.x and later will work just fine on your new computer running Windows Vista, 7, or Windows 8.

Switching to a Mac? Learn how to install Windows and ProShow on your Mac to get up and running. For more details regarding this topic, click here.

Check if you are eligible for an upgrade

Are you eligible to upgrade to the latest version of ProShow? When you purchase ProShow, you get a year of free upgrades with your purchase. The same rule applies for upgrade purchases. For more info on upgrade eligibility, click here.

Know where all shows are saved and make sure they load into ProShow

Do you know where your shows are saved? The default save location for ProShow 5.x and later is the ‘Documents’ folder, so this is a good place to start. If your shows are not in this folder, they are probably stored in some other folder on your hard drive. Use the built-in Windows search function (Shortcut: Windows logo key  + F) to find your shows, <type *.PSH> into the search field to find these files on your computer. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time when searching for these files and verify that they still load into ProShow on your current computer before moving forward. We want to make sure all shows load into ProShow to avoid any surprises when it comes time to collect your shows and transfer them to the new computer.

Transfer shows to new computer

How do you plan to transfer your collected shows to your new computer? Do you plan to use a DVD, Blu-ray, flash drive, or an external drive? We recommend using a USB flash drive or external hard drive. Using a flash drive or external hard drive gives you the capacity you need to easily transfer your shows and the content to the new computer in one pass.

Executing the Plan!

Now that we have all items checked off our list, we are ready to collect our shows and transfer the collected shows to the new computer

Step 1: Collect Show files

When we collect show files we are making a copy of all the content (image, video, audio) in the show from its original location and moving the copy to a specific folder that is easy to move around from one computer to the other. Collecting your show is the easiest way to make sure you have everything you need to successfully load your show on a new computer.

1. Open your show
2. Click on Tools
3. Choose Collect Show Files
4. Look for Copy to Folder - it’s on the right-hand side
5. Select Browse
6. Choose Desktop
7. Make a new folder – Name it something unique, like the name of your show 
8. Click Ok
9. Click Collect - it’s on the bottom right-hand side
10. Wait for ProShow to collect the show; it will let you know when it’s finished.

For a video walk through on collecting show files and transferring content, click here.

If you are running ProShow versions 4.x and earlier, click here.

Step 2: Transfer collected shows to new computer

Now that we have all shows collected, we are ready to transfer these shows to your USB flash or external hard drive. This is the bridge that we will use to move the content from the old computer to the new computer. The plan is to transfer all collected shows to the USB drive and then move the folders from the USB drive to your new computer’s hard drive for the final resting place.

1. Open up Windows Explorer (Shortcut: Windows logo key + E) and insert your USB flash or external hard drive. Make sure it appears in Windows Explorer before moving to step 2
   
2. Double-click the USB drive to open the contents of this drive and leave this up on the screen
3. Transfer the folder(s) with the collected show files from your Desktop to your USB drive by dragging and dropping the folders into the Explorer window. Wait for the content to finish copying before moving to step 4
4. Now that all collect show files are on the USB drive, unplug this drive from your old computer and plug it into the new computer
5. Open up Windows Explorer on your new computer and double-click the USB drive to open the contents of the drive
6. Drag and drop the folders you moved from your old computer on the USB drive to the Desktop of your new computer. Wait for the content to finish copying before unplugging the USB drive from your new computer.
7. With all folders on your Desktop, you can now move them to their final resting place on your new computer. We recommend creating a folder in ‘Documents’ and calling the folder something like My ProShows.

Now all collected show files are on the hard drive of your new computer and we are ready to install ProShow.

Step 3: Install and register ProShow on new computer

There are a couple different ways you can download the installation file for ProShow. You can download the latest version of ProShow 6 from here, or you can go to your products and download the latest version that you are entitled to use with your product registration key.

1. Choose Save when prompted to download. Most browsers today will automatically save the file to your ‘Downloads’ folder located under your user profile in Windows
2. Click the Save (or Open) button to begin the downloading process
3. Wait for download to complete
4. Start the installation by double clicking on the file you downloaded (the filename will look something like psgold_60_xxxx.exe or pspro_60_xxxx.exe)
5. When the installer appears on screen, click Next followed by Enter Registration to key in your name, phone and registration key for ProShow
6. Now follow the on-screen instructions to complete the ProShow installation process.

Now would be a good time to install all add-on packs that you own as well. To download your add-on packs go to your products and download the installation file for each pack. Make sure you gather the necessary product keys for each pack while you are on this screen. After installing your Add-on packs, move on to Step 4.

Step 4: Load your shows

The last thing we need to do is make sure the shows that we copied over to the new computer load into ProShow.

1. In ProShow, click Open and browse to the location where your collected shows are saved on your new computer. 
2. Select the folder containing your collected show
3. Select the <PSH> file from the folder and click Open 
4. Now ProShow will load the show into the timeline
5. If you receive a Find missing files notice, go through the steps to locate the images in the collected show folder. For more info on missing files, click here
6. Save the show after it loads into ProShow and then repeat this process for the each additional show that you copied to the new computer.