linux to windows migration tips and tools

To my great surprise there is a Windows driver for ext3: http://fs-driver.org/

If that doesn't work for whatever reason you could also try converting your ext3 partition to NTFS, which you can then access in both Linux and Windows. In fact, if you want to be really safe, make it FAT instead. You would need to do this manually - backup, format and restore. Obviously you'd be giving up Linux file permissions and other file system features by doing this, but if it's a single-user home computer that might be OK.

You can try install vmWare. You can get vmWare server version for free with registration.

Run the Linux inside vmware under Windows.
Setup Samba to share Linux file with windows.

I do this all the time in my laptop. It works very well for me.