Windows Easy Transfer or PCMover?
November 2, 2006 by Milo Riano
Filed under Windows Vista
Laplink Software’s PCMover retails for $49.95 while Microsoft’s Windows Easy Transfer is going to be a free add-on when it ships on January 2007.
Both softwares migrate applications, data and configurations settings from Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, and IM from one PC (Windows 98 and later) to another computer running MAC loaded with BootCamp. Currently, PCMover is not able to migrate all applications but said they are working on their product while Microsoft said they add-on is capable of migrating all products.
If Microsoft keep their promise both feature wise and release date, I don’t see any reason why consumers will buy PCMover other than customer support. Nevertheless, geeks should find it easy to migrate these things using the free Microsoft product.
Hi Milo:
Your blog showed up in one of our alerts and I wanted to make a correction to your post.
PCmover does in fact move ALL applications and programs where as the Vista Companion Migration tool will move almost all applications but is only tested for a limited number. Also, the Companion will require users to do a Easy Transfer for Windows from their XP machine to thier Vista machine and then run companion afterwards, making it a two step process.
There are still many advantages to using PCmover over Easy Transfer Companion and Laplink will be addressing these in the coming months.
Please contact me if you are interested in testing a copy of PCmover to see how it works for yourself.
Thanks,
Sara Cooke
Laplink Software
Well you would say that Sarah wouldn’y you !
In fact as you and any other user unfortunate enough to have believed Laplinks’ claims and bought PC Mover know very well PC Mover is far from seamless and simply does not do what it says on the can - it cannot do a strightforward transfer of allk files, settings and apps in almost any scenario.
I used PCMover. Now some programs will not work properly, namely Adobe Photoshop Elements, Camedia Master, and I-Tunes. I tried remving them and reinstalling them, but they still won’t work properly. Any ideas? Sarah…..?
I used PCMover and I’m sorry I did. Beware of PCMover, it made my life a living hell.
Pete, Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 is the only Vista compatible (they have a patch). As for Camedia Master, it is not Vista compatible, YET.
Actually I used PCMover and it SUCKS! after i migrated to vista, i was getting all kinds of errors, from explorer.exe crashing to kernel errors. i even tried to repair Vista and it was still giving kernel erros so i just decided to forget it and go back to windows easy transfer (after wasting another 6 hours formatting, installing OS and apps…). Since i had application CDs, i used minimum application during the PCMover Migration and it still didn’t work.
My recommendation, don’t use PCMover; Microsoft knows what OS they built better than anyone else. Especially that you have to eat up $49 as they don’t accept refunds
-Michael
I knew the idea of laplink was too good to be true considering all the intricacies in software/registry settings and so forth. Fortunately I was proven right when a friend was gullible enough to purchase it. Using laplink for migration is like just copying your c drive to a dvd and then copying it back to the new system hoping everything will just work. Nothing will work. Windows doesnt work this way, and programs dont exist simply as a collection of files in the Program Files folder. If the software is not directly installed on a system (or doesnt require it) 99% of the time it will not work correctly.
Acronis and Symantec have very nice data migration technologies with their disc imaging backup solutions, that can retarget an entire harddrive to new hardware, like pulling out one harddrive and putting it into a new system with new hardware without windows going up in smoke at all the changes. The software systematically pulls the hardware information out of windows and injects new information so that windows is for the most part completely unaware that a move took place.
I have used PC Mover many times moving data and applications from old XP PCs to new PCs running XP. Any time at work I replace an old PC with a new one I use it. It works better than any other product like this I have tried (and I have tried several). I particularly like the option of choosing what apps I want to move. I have never had any major problems with it and works as advertised. I have been supporting PCs for over 20 years and this is the best PC migration tool I have ever used. It does do more than just copy data - it copies registry entries and most applications do work on the new PCs.
I purchased LapLink Easy Mover along with my new laptop. Wish someone had warned me sooner. Its a nightmare and no support available today (Sunday). I installed it on both the old and new PC and received messages that I needed to download an update. After downloading the updates I tried to run the program and received error messages that I needed to enter a serial number. What serial number? Again tried to do live chat but no response. tried phone number but not business hours. This product and the service really suck!
Laplink products are a complete ripoff and they will not refund your money. I am now on day 9 of trying to move programs and files - and now resorting to the old fashioned way - reinstall programs, copy files to cd and then copy to the new computer. Taking some time but actually getting done.
If I did not need a PC for certain software - I would be all over getting a Mac - this is a living hell and ridiculous.