No Windows Easy Transfer on Windows 8.1

I have a new PC Windows 8.1 laptop and need to transfer the 600Gb of files from my old laptop which is also running 8.1. Frustratingly I've discovered that Windows Easy Transfer in 8.1 no longer allows machine to machine transfer of files! Apparently you are supposed to copy everything to and from SkyDrive. Well 600Gb would take months over my ADSL and I've only got 100Gb on my SkyDrive account! It seems a crazy solution to remove this feature however I've found a solution. I found an old Windows 8.0 machine and copied the whole c:\Windows\System32\MigWiz folder to the two 8.1 laptops. You can then simply run the 8.0 migwiz.exe on the old and new laptops. I'm pleased to report that the Windows 8.0 version runs fine on 8.1 and successfully copies over the files.

I really think Microsoft should put the file transfer option back in. It would also be helpful if people sold USB3 Easy Transfer cables to speed up the transfer time.