How can I transfer software from my old laptop to my new one

You'll need the licence key and installer for each application otherwise it won't work.
Them it's a simple case of reinstalling them as neeeded

There are some programs, like PC Mover that claim to be able to transfer programs from one machine to another. Most of the time software has to be installed, so you will need the original install disks or files and license keys.

Data can be transferred in a variety of ways. Like a file transfer cable, flash drive, external hard drive, uploading to the Net, and more.

I bought a flash drive, cheap and easy, and just watched it all transfer after one step. The old computer was 6 years old. The web is full of how to go through many steps to do this, but I think it's old advice.

I bought a flash drive,That'll work fine for data but not for installed programs unfortunately.

OOPS, true

I'm going to throw out a kind of little known fact here. When an application is installed, knowing what dependencies it requires can make moving the thing to another drive or PC possible. Many applications do not add files to the windows > system32 directory and if they do not then most of the program will be in its own directory with the addition of a few registry entries and shortcuts (shortcut on the desktop or start menu) and sometimes there can be stuff in My Documents you can move too. Shortcuts can be re-done on the new machine including adding them to the start menu if you first go to you're my Documents section and add a folder for it in the start menu listing. Then you can right click its startup exe file and "send to desktop create shortcut". After the shortcut is on the desktop, you can drag it over the start button which will open your start menu and then holding while you drag (don't drop it) until your in the empty folder you created. Often registry entries are unimportant, like where the file was installed from (C drive D optical drive) and uninstall information. Its possible to search the registry if you know what to search for because the program may not use its whole name in its entry (Photoshop Elemtents version 2 may be PE2).

I have found that 80% of the time you move a program to another drive or machine it will still run. But things like PE2 that require scratch disk areas and temp folder destinations might not work.
There is an application called RegFromApp which watches as a program is installed and then lists all the registry entries it makes. Of course you have to be installing the app before it can record, it will not look in the registry for entries of apps already installed.
It would not hurt to copy your directories to the new machine and try them. You just have know what exe file is the main start file and you can find out from the old machine by right clicking its shortcut then properties and "find target". That will show you what exe file is initiated to run the program.

Just remember that since the program was not installed, it can not be uninstalled either and is sort of a portable app now. That's why when I do this myself I create a folder in my D drive under D > Program Files called 0No Install. The 0 makes sure its always at the top of the D > Program files Directory and now I know that the files in there were not installed and therefore will not be uninstallable. BUT I can just erase the whole directory and any shortcuts I made manually just like a portable app.

Wow, Another novel, can you tell I like to play around with Windows and get over on it?

I have must have more than 50 games installed to my XP 32 bit machine downstairs that I transferred to my Vista 64 bit machine upstairs and even though I use RegFromApp to record the registry entries, most will still run without them. I do use nocd fixes and I believe that stops the game from looking in the registry at startup. What I do though is not run the game on the XP machine, I do not want it to configure itself to XP so I transfer after I install and add any updates but without running the game. That way when I run it for the first time in Vista 64 it can create its config file for that machine.

While what you said is accurate, unless the program is truly self contained it would be difficult for the average person to move a program over. Its much better advice and process to install from the original install file, either downloaded or on disk.