PCmover Makes Light Work of Setting Up a New PC

PC Pro Magazine (UK)  - Tim Danton
Sep 4, 2006
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If you’ve decided to buy one of the PCs on review here, you’ll want a simple and easy way to transfer your files and settings from your old computer onto your new PC. Thankfully, LapLink’s PCmover is here to help and, unlike Windows’ built-in File and Settings Transfer wizard, it will also migrate all your programs. For £20, you can download it from www.laplink.com or you can buy a physical version that includes a USB 1.1. cable (Type A to Type A) for £26. As you’d expect, you’ll need to install PCmover on both computers and either connect the USB cable or use a network connection or parallel cable. Failing that, you can burn the data onto a stack of CDs or DVDs. The network option will be fastest and most convenient for the majority of people, and worked best in our testing. The wizard fi rst takes a snapshot of your new notebook to check the currently installed applications and settings. You then start the wizard on your old computer and can customise which settings are transferred. These include Microsoft Outlook settings and contacts, Word settings and Internet Explorer settings. You can opt out of moving IE settings to try to avoid copying spyware, but there’s no option to choose which programs to transfer – it’s all or nothing. It’s also worth noting that PCmover has a few limitations. For example, anti-virus and anti-spyware programs (and any other application that installs system services) may have to be reinstalled from the original CD. No hardware information is transferred either, so printers, scanners and TV tuners will have to be installed manually, and possibly any associated software. You can transfer data from systems running Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000 or XP. We tested PCmover by transferring everything from a Dell Inspiron 9400 notebook running Windows XP Home to one of the PCs on test here. PCmover reported that a whopping 22GB of data needed to be moved, including 29,836 fi les and 95,453 settings. Data is compressed by approximately 50% and it took 1hr 15mins to make the transfer over a 100Mb/sec network connection. We found that everything had gone smoothly, except that McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 reported missing fi les and requested a reinstall. Ultimately, if you’r e happy to reinstall your applications manually, you may as well use Window’s built-in tool, but otherwise PCmover should make light work of getting your new PC up and running just the way you like it.