How comfortable with computers determines how easy to transfer. The 'easy' way is to remove the hard from old computer and install in new computer as an additional drive (not your boot drive). Your data will be there. If you're talking all of your older programs, you will need all of the installation program disks.

Plugging the old drive into the new computer is what I usually do, but it does require some knowhow.

Another way is to use the "Windows Easy Transfer Tool" which for XP is a separate download. It's included with Win8.

It will transfer :

– User Accounts

– Documents

– Videos

– Music

– Pictures

– Email

– Browser Favorties (probably IE only)

You can use the tool in either of two ways :

Have both computers on your house's network, either wirelessly or by wired cable and transfer everything over the network.

Or, you can use a flash drive to carry the files from one computer to another.

Here's a pretty good guide :

How to transfer data from your old computer to Windows 8

As to previously downloaded applications, you will have to again reinstall them manually being sure to install 64-bit offerings whenever possible.

DA

"Everything" covers a lot of ground, including some things you may not want. Were you running any 16-bit apps on that XP box? Be prepared for them to not run under 8.1 . Are you sure there are no "nasties" lurking around? If there are, they may get transferred too. As to Documents-Pictures-Video...do you really have so many that it would be inconvenient to put them on a flash drive and simply drag/drop them to the new computer? I won't address email except to say that if you really need to retain old ones, you should research the instructions specific to the email client you use. You could also forward the important ones to your own junk email address and then forward them back to yourself once you have email set up on the new machine. I am not inclined to trust anything that Microsoft says is "easy", but that's just me.