Laplink PC Mover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant [DOWNLOAD]
Ratings: 3.0 from total of 14 ratings.
Price: $29.99
Price: $29.99
Product Features:
- The Only way to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 hassle free
- Keep your Applications with no reinstalling
- Upgrade from any version of Windows
- Select which programs and files you keep
- Easy to use wizard
Product Description
PCmover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant – the ONLY way to upgrade from XP to Windows 7! All your programs, files and settings are saved right where you want them! Don?t risk losing important data by starting over. Rest assured that all your important data will be saved with an in-place upgrade to Windows 7 using PCmover.
July 3rd, 2010 at 12:32 am
I’ve been holding off on the Vista 32 to Win7 64 migration because I didn’t want to spend weeks reinstalling apps and screwing with license activations. I have over 50 licensed packages on my system, and quite a few of them require a more complex activation procedure than just entering a license string. In the past I’ve had to call various vendors (and wait on hold to explain that I’ve migrated systems and I’m not pirating their software), ping a vendor site for a new code, or try and find the email containing the license info when I’ve forgotten to save it to my license key document.
This weekend I migrated and, other than Photoshop and my virus scanner, I haven’t had to reinstall or relicense anything–even Office. Photoshop requires that you deactivate then reactivate on the new system, so that wasn’t a problem, and the app itself was migrated. Virus scanners don’t migrate well and the instructions strongly suggest you reinstall after migration.
Migration took about 20 minutes to prep the moving van on the old system, and about 5-1/2 hours to restore on the new system. The selective migration capability allowed me to drop a lot of crud from the old system. The instructions are very complete, with one caveat discussed below, and the program itself gives a lot of feedback as to what it’s doing. It was pretty obvious to me at least that the license was for a one-shot move, which was a great deal for at $10.
Pros:
- Moved 50+ apps and licenses to new machine with zero problems
- Did this on a major OS upgrade *and* a 32-64 bit migration
- Fast–I could have maybe reinstalled 4-5 apps in the time it took to move all of them
- All of the app data came over, despite the annoying problem of apps scattering data all over the machine
- All configuration items (except the quicklauncher, and that’s a Win7 issue) came over–all preferences, email account settings, etc. I clicked Outlook and it a) found the right .pst file, b) immediately began downloading email, and c) kept all of my settings. Getting the configurations for each program back to normal after reinstalls would probably have taken months.
- $10 for a full-featured one-use product
- Start and forget–it ran unattended during the restoration process
Cons:
- Stand by to repel boarders–they make no fewer than 3 attempts to force the lame “Ask” toolbar and search engine on your machine. One obvious screen with a checkbox (defaulted to on, of course) for the toolbar and one for the browser, and another screen cleverly disguised as a license agreement screen that will also load them unless you select no. I don’t know, maybe the Ask thing subsidizes the $10 price, but it’s fricking annoying. At least they could have tried to force something better than Ask–maybe Google or something. Minus one star for this–it’s an insult to attempt to force this on us 3 times (especially with the pseudo-license screen), and it’s an injury that the software they’re forcing is the Ask crapware.
- The wording of the otherwise excellent documentation is a little confusing (at least for me) and I wasn’t sure if the files I didn’t select to migrate (I have a lot of media files on another drive) would be erased or otherwise tinkered with. They weren’t. Also, there’s a selection to have the files migrated out of the windows.old directory moved or copied. This shouldn’t (IMHO) even be an option–it’s just not safe to delete them during the migration.
Summary:
Incredibly useful product at a great price. It just works. Just read the directions carefully and fend off the crapware.
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:52 am
I used this to upgrade from 32 bit Vista to 64 bit Windows 7. I followed suggestions and printed out the Users guide, and it could not have been easier. Upgrade went super fast and all my programs made the transition without having to reinstall. Best $9 I have ever spent.
July 3rd, 2010 at 9:15 am
UPDATE
PC Mover works well. But if I had to do it over again, I would do a clean install. There are too many idiosyncrasies that are left when you do an in place upgrade install. Certain shortcuts remain that you have no access to. Certain software drivers you install afterwords get a bit confused. (like my Brothers 8640D printer). But that said, no doubt the laplink in place upgrade does save time.
ORIGINAL REVIEW
In this review, I’ll try to walk you through what to expect and what to do if you decide to use PC Mover.
With all the idiosyncrasies of millions of computers, any product that attempts to do what PC Mover does is bound to get lots of mixed feedback. But for me, the experience was superb. I have a Dell Computer with 4 GB and Windows XP which I bought last year. (I didn’t want any part of Vista after all I had heard). I decided to upgrade to Windows 7, and thought PC Mover was just what I was looking for to do an in-place direct upgrade from XP to Windows 7. I bought Windows Upgrade 3 months ago, but let it meditate on my desk for 3 months. Yesterday I finally worked up the courage to try installing the Upgrade using PC Mover. So I bought PC Mover.
Having read the reviews I was prepared for several things: 1. Do a back-up of current computer (I do this regularly anyway). 2. Be on the look out for PC Mover’s attempts to get me to download the [...] Toolbar. I didn’t want it on my system, so I was alert for the sales pitches. (The trickiest one is the the second attempt in which it looks like you’re just okaying the license agreement…but they are referring to the [...] license agreement.) Be alert for these attempts…I counted three, maybe four attempts. 3. Read the Instructions. and 4. Really READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. In fact Print them out. 5. Be sure to put the PC Mover program you download on a USB drive (nice tip another reviewer posted here..thank you.) That way you’ll have easy access to install it in Windows 7 when you unload the Van. Forget to do this, and you might be buying a second copy to finish the move from XP to Windows 7. So let me stress again. PUT A COPY OF PC MOVER ON A USB DRIVE. Also be sure you have the Serial number for PC Mover handy…you’ll need it.
Other things you should do to prep your computer before starting is download Smart Defrag and defragment your hard drive (you can use the one in XP but it is slower). Now Turn Off the Anti-Virus and the Firewall. (I disconnected the Internet access cable before doing this).
I installed PC Mover, and it directed me to the site with the instructions. (Turned on anti-virsus and connected to Internet. After printing and reading the instructions, (again turned off anti-virus and disconnected cable)I was ready to begin the process.
I started the PC Mover process about 5:30 pm. I selected Old Computer to start (that’s the XP) Other than being alert for the [...] pitches, I accepted all the default choices. (I did de-select Norton since the antivirus will not transfer over). My computer had a C and H drive (H is the Dell recovery). I let it upgrade both (if you’re confused just select both drives). You can de-select certain folders. I didn’t find any reason to do this, so I went with the default. PC Mover had already unselected certain system folders it was not going to move. Then I let PC MOver “load the van”…that took about 15 or 20 minutes.
Now it was time to install Windows 7 Upgrade. This is where I ran into my first surprise. I had intended to upgrade to 64 bit Windows 7, as my Dell is capable of doing this in theory. But I kept getting an error message that said I could not use 64 bit disc on this computer. I finally gave up and loaded the 32 Bit version of Windows 7. I don’t think this was a PC Mover issue since at this point PC Mover is not running. It was either Dell or Microsoft or me…don’t know which.
I installed Windows 7 – picked Custom Installation. I went through the Microsoft drill… takes about one hour. It installed nicely (other than my inability to get 64 bit version to install). One thing I was concerned about is whether my cordless Microsoft mouse, and cordless Logitech keyboard would function in “naked” Windows 7, before unloading the van. Not to worry, both worked fine without any installation software.
Now I pulled out the USB drive, inserted it in the computer and installed PC Mover in Windows 7. I started PC Mover, and selected NEW Computer. I let it “move” rather than “copy” files as it recommended. About 20 minutes later, the Van was fully unloaded. I rebooted Windows 7 and magically, all my stuff was there. Word, Excel, Powerpoint, One Note, Outlook were all there. My Word templates were there. When you start these programs, it says it is installing them…but quickly opens the program and all licensing is transferred accurately. All the Outlook accounts, contacts, emails, settings, calendar and tasks were there. So were the signatures on the emails.
Somehow even the hyperlinks in One Note still worked even though the My Documents naming convention in Windows 7 is different than in XP. Don’t if I should complement PC Mover or Microsoft for that nice touch. But now I don’t have to re-link the files.
I installed a new Norton Internet Security before proceeding.
Lightroom and Photoshop Elements transferred fine. So did Work Perfect, Firefox and Chrome Bookmarks. Microsoft Money Plus and Tax Cut transferred perfectly. Even the desktop background picture transferred over.
Here’s what I had to re-install: ITunes, so it could recognize my Iphone; Timeslips; Huey color management program; Copernic; Carbonite required re-installation…but it recognized the files as having been already backed up.
I got most of the stuff done, other than some re-installations by 8:30 pm. So from the time I started until most things were in place took about 3 hours. (I know some people say it took them 6 hours…so your time may be different). I had about 200 megs on my hard disk and two or three dozen programs.
Needless to say I’m impressed with PC Mover and recommend it. It cuts a 25 hour job down to about 3 hours. (I didn’t count the backup of XP computer before I started PC Mover, defrag time, or downloading PC Mover in that time). Is it perfect? No, but it is pretty close to perfect. It is very impressive and helpful.
Once in Windows 7, you still have to deal with certain Windows 7 issues…like the new Windows 7 printer driver may be less functional (again, this has nothing to do with PC Mover). Highly recommended.
July 3rd, 2010 at 1:03 pm
You are wasting your time with this product. Called Laplink and they could care less.
July 3rd, 2010 at 8:38 pm
This product seems great on the surface, but it does not work !
It transferred all the programs and settings but everything but Microsot Office Word had problems.
Some Examples …
Adobe Design Premium CS3 ( Photoshop, Illustrator etc …) “License Error” Reinstallation required message at launch
Microsoft Visual Studio 6 ( Missing DLLs error nessage at launch )
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 ( Acted as if it were just installed, missing functions )
Gimp ( error messages, missing dlls, crash)
many … many many other problems…
Not worth the money or especially the day and a half of wasted time and effort…….
You would be an idiot not to have a complete backup before you run this program, if you are foolhardy enough to try it…..