Many people ask the question: "What files do I need on my new system". Now hopefully you've kept the original CD's for your software. Setting up software on a remote system, while not impossible, is quite difficult. The best way to set up your Microsoft office, or your Adobe Acrobat, is to use the original setup files which are on the CD when you purchased the software. Of course we are talking simple, there are many other ways of doing this, but I recommend a clean or fresh start to that new computer. Now you need to migrate those data files, or should I say the files created by the applications. If you don't know the extensions, you should start the program and check out under file, save as. Usually this should list out all the extensions it supports, with most of the default formats towards the top of the list. These are what you want to find on your hard drive.. Now the first place to look is c:\documents and settings\Your logon\My documents. This folder is probably everything you need unless you have a pesky habit of saving things on your desktop in which you would replace my documents with desktop.
Now it's worth noting, there is a lot more than datafiles which could and should be transferred. Goto the C:\documents and Settings\ Your Name. This has a few other folders which you might consider moving.
If you've customized your start button, make sure you look at the 'Start Menu' Folder. If you have a list of favorite links from your browser, check out the 'Favorites' folder. And of course those #$*#& Cookies. Well not all cookies are bad, actually some are really useful, like the ones which remember you when you've been to a website before, Check those over and move over the ones you recognize. If you don't recognize them, leave them out.
Now it's time to check out your configuration on your new computer. Make sure the files are there before You get rid of your old computer.
I know that this is common sense kind of stuff, but it doesn't hurt to put it down in writing.