Laplink's PCmover is a brilliant piece of software ideally suited to individuals or businesses wishing to upgrade their computers. PCmover lets you move all of your applications, data files, and even registry settings to another PC, and even from old Windows operating systems to newer ones. The best thing about the software is that it eliminates the hassle and expense of having to re-install all your existing applications manually - assuming you can even find all those CDs, serial numbers, and files you've downloaded to your hard drive over the years. And it's quick, too, although we recommend you ditch the supplied USB 1.1 cable for the optional USB 2.0 cable for quicker data transfers.
Pros: Low cost; easy to use; effective; works with multiple media
Cons: Windows only; requires licence for every PC to be cloned
They'll be a point when your once powerful computer starts to act a little dated, and some of the new applications you buy seem to run slower and take an age to load. If you decide to purchase a new system, you'll soon come to realise that it seemingly takes forever to re-install all your applications and settings. There are several ways you could go about cloning your old machine, such as using Norton's Ghost, but this software relies on your new computer hardware being the same as you old gear. Alternatively, you could copy data and settings by hand and backup to removable media, but the likelihood of the newly-installed applications running smoothly will be unlikely.
Laplink's PCmover is a much more practical and cost effective alternative. The software allows you to clone your existing computer's applications, registry and data settings to your new machine, either using the supplied gold plated USB 1.1 cable, parallel cable, optical media or over a Local Area Network (LAN). Combine this with a wizard-driven interface which guides you through the clone process and you have a product that can save your hours - or days - of laborious labour.
PCmover runs on all Windows operating systems and requires either an Intel or compatible 486DX or higher processor, 16MB RAM and just 4MB of hard disk drive space. Secondly, the new computer does not need to be running the same hardware, so as long as the operating system is of equal or higher state you can happily transfer applications between the two machines with a few clicks of your mouse. Equally important is that your old machine is left intact and any changes that you make are all reversible.
The software can also be ordered with an optional silver-plated USB 2.0 cable ($49.95), which makes transferring files between the source and destination computer faster. For example, the supplied USB 1.0 cable runs at only 5Mbit/s, compared to the USB 2.0 speed of about 480Mbit/s. As you can imagine, the USB 2.0 cable is the more practical option if transferring huge amounts of files is required.
PCmover also contains some nifty software to mange the migration from PC to PC. In addition to the wizard-driven interface, you also have a more advanced application (Control Centre) that allows IT support teams/managers to manage a number of computer snap shots. A snap shot is the contents of a hard disk and registry settings. Once a snapshot of a computer has been taken you can then re-distribute (licence permitting) this snapshot to other PCs.
