How to Transfer Bookmarks from XP to Chromebook

Windows XP is officially dead on April 8th for home consumers. And if you don’t want to get a new Windows system or upgrade XP, one affordable option is to get a Chromebook. This is a perfect solution for people who want to surf the web, email, social networks, and light document work using Google Docs.

Of course you’ll want to make sure the bookmarks you’ve accumulated over the years come with you. Now, if you’re using the Google Chrome browser on XP, all you need to do is log in with your Google Account and you’re bookmarks will transfer automatically.

But if you’ve been using Internet Explorer or Firefox, you’ll need to export the bookmarks and import them manually.

Transfer Bookmarks from Firefox or IE to Chromebook

For Internet Explorer (in this example it’s IE 8), launch it and go to File > Import and Export. Then save the file to a convenient location. If you don’t see the menu bar  just hit the Alt key and it will pop up

On the next screen select Export to a File and click Next.

Then choose Favorites (as Microsoft calls bookmarks) and you also have the option to transfer Feeds and Cookies too.

In Firefox, hit the Firefox button then go to Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks or hit the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+B.

Then click Import and Backup > Export Bookmarks to HTML file.

The easiest way to transfer the bookmarks file from either browser to the Chromebook is store it in your Google Drive (if you use it), or you can always pop in a thumb drive and move them over.

To import the bookmarks, log in to your Chromebook and click on the Chrome menu at the upper right corner. Then select Bookmarks > Bookmark Manager.

Next select Organize > Import Bookmarks from HTML File.

Then select the HTML file you exported from IE or Firefox.

That’s all there is to it! Your bookmarks form the XP machine will appear in a folder labeled Imported.

It’s also worth noting that Microsoft is making a free tool available to help consumer’s migrate data between systems called PC Mover Express for Windows XP.  At the time of this writing the download isn’t live for the tool. But you can download an PDF for Frequently Asked Questions.

If you’re still running XP, what are you plans for transferring you data? Also, make sure to keep coming back as we’ll have a lot more tips and solutions to help make your migration from XP easier.