Migrating Users and Data and Wordshark 5 to a different computer

Migrating Users and Data and Wordshark 5 to a different computer


How to move Wordshark 5 user data (including any own word lists) from one computer to another for a ‘Download Licence’  


version dated 07/02/20


Before starting, check you have your Licence code, internet connection and a memory stick to transfer the data files.

If any part of these instructions do not work for you, please contact support@wordshark.co.uk for advice before proceeding further.

On the OLD machine:

  1. Open wordshark and sign on as an Admin User, go to Admin / Add and manage students and click on the red icon to create a new admin user, e.g. “Disposable Admin”.
  1. Exit from this screen and go to File / sign off your current admin. Then sign on again as the newly created “Disposable Admin” user.
  1. Go to Admin / Add and manage.  Click on “Collect students”, and highlight the names of each student you wish to transfer (use the Shift or Ctrl key to select multiple users) then drag into the ‘Disposable Admin’ current students.  
  1. Select ‘All your current students’ and any ‘Other administrators’ required (press and hold the Ctrl key to highlight all users). Then click once on the “Export” button to export the highlighted users.
  1. Browse to export users to an appropriate location, e.g. a memory stick.  Each user will be saved as a file in the format [username].shu which will be a bundle of records of work and set work.  You will end up with a user file for EVERY user except the newly created “Disposable Admin”.
  2. Now go to Admin / Advanced / Deactivate licence.  
  1. Close the program.
  1. If intending to continue using the machine for other programs, you may now uninstall our program to save disk space. It is not necessary to do this if you are disposing of the computer.


On the NEW machine:

  1. Download the latest v5 files from our download site: 
    1. School Download Licences: www.wordshark.co.uk/Downloads/WS5SA 
    2. Home Download Licences: www.wordshark.co.uk/Downloads/WS5Home
  1. Install the program and activate the licence.
  1. Sign on and create a new ‘unique’ administrator who does NOT have the same name as any user already created on the old machine, e.g. “Temporary Admin”. 
  1. Go to Admin / Add and Manage.  Click on the “Import” button, browse to the memory stick and import each of the  .SHU user files.
  1. Exit, close and restart the program. You should find that users and groups have now been picked up correctly.
  1. Go to Admin / Advanced / Check user files. This will further test that all user files have imported correctly.
  1. You may need to go to Admin / Universal Settings to change some of these to your preference.
  1. If wished, close, reopen, sign on as the previous administrator, go to Admin / Add and Manage. Click on the new “Temporary Admin”, and click “Delete” to remove this user.



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