Many people shy away from buying a new PC because they’ve stored their lives on their old one and have no idea how to move everything across.

Laplink’s PCmover is here to help. We took a rubbish old PC loaded with software applications and files scattered all over the place and transferred them onto a new system, with only Windows XP installed. Our old PC ran Windows XP too, but Laplink supports switching from Windows 98 to XP. We installed the client application on each machine, designated which was old and which was new, and connected the two with the supplied, double-headed USB 1.1 cable (though you can use a networked PC as a target or a third-party PC as a file server). We confirmed that we wanted to include Outlook mailboxes and Word settings with the migration and clicked go. Naturally USB 1.1 is not ideal and the process took more than six hours.

We couldn’t find a single file that had been missed and virtually all of our applications worked straight away. Norton SystemWorks refused to work and we recommend removing similar well-entrenched programmes beforehand as uninstalling it afterwards proved onerous. It’s a shame that network settings weren’t carried across – but few home users will be affected.

We were ultimately impressed. While we can’t promise all transplanted apps will work (some won’t be compatible with a new OS), for many people Laplink has provided a reason to finally upgrade. Just note that Laplink’s licensing only permits one ‘old’ PC to be designated. You can have as many new ones as you like.