IMPORTANT: The sections ‘PCmover Pre-Transfer Checklist’ and ‘Transfer Information’ should be reviewed and completed before beginning a PCmover transfer.
1. Welcome to PCmover
- If PCmover is not already running, start PCmover on your Old PC.
Note: If you see a Windows Security Alert (User Account Control dialog), select ‘Unblock’ or ‘Yes’ to proceed with running PCmover. The Security Alert is a standard Windows message that appears when starting most programs on your PC.
- If you see the notice about a new version of PCmover, click the link to get the latest version of PCmover. You will be taken to a Web page from which you can download the updated version, as well as the latest guide.
IMPORTANT: If a new version is available, please install the new version on BOTH computers immediately.
- Old PC to New PC Transfer: If you are transferring from your old PC to your new PC, click Transfer Between PCs, and go to step 2.
Note: If the ‘Transfer Between PCs’ button stays gray and you see an error, please follow the steps in the Troubleshooting point "Welcome Screen – Unable to Advance"
2. Validate Serial Number
- Enter your user name, email address, and serial number, and click Next.
Serial Number: The location of your serial number depends on how you purchased PCmover.
- Download: When you purchased the product, you should have received a confirmation email containing your serial number. If you no longer have the email message, visit the “My Downloads” page of your Laplink Support Account at:
http://www.laplink.com/mysupport/myStore.asp
Once there, enter the email address you supplied when you purchased the product. If you have forgotten your password, please enter your email address and click on the Forgot Your Password link.
- CD: Affixed to the CD sleeve.
3. Run PCmover on Both PCs
- Go to your New PC and follow the previous steps one and two on your New PC.
- Once you see the Run PCmover on Both PCs screen on your New PC, go to step four.
Note: Do not click ‘Next’ on either PC until step four has been completed.
4. Connect Your Old and New PCs
Choose which method you will use to connect your Old and New PCs for the transfer. Laplink recommends using a WiFi or Wired Network if available. Network connections in PCmover support SSL.
- WiFi or Wired Network: Both your old and new PCs must be on the same WiFi or Wired Network. If so, your computers are already connected. Click Next on both your Old and New PCs on the Run PCmover on Both PCs screens.
- Laplink Ethernet Cable or Laplink USB Cable: Plug the Laplink Cable into the applicable Ethernet or USB ports on both your Old and New PCs. Click Next on both your Old and New PCs on the Run PCmover on Both PCs screens.
Note: If the New Hardware Detected Wizard is displayed when you plug in the USB cable on Windows XP, select “No, not this time” and click ‘Next’. If you see the dialog window stating that ”Connection with a USB cable cannot be detected”, please verify that the cable is plugged into both PCs.
5. Old PC: Find Other PC
Your Old PC and New PC are connected if you see the names of both PCs listed on the Find another PC screen on your Old PC.
Note: If you don’t see both PCs listed, click ‘Scan Again’ on your Old PC. You may see a dialog with the name of your New PC. If so, select the PC and click ‘OK’.
Once your Old and New PCs are connected, set up on the Old PC is complete. Go to the New PC and continue to the next section to finish setting up the transfer.
6. New PC: Set Up Transfer
On the New PC, click Analyze PC.
When the analysis is complete, decide what you want to transfer to your new PC:
- Choose What to Transfer: If you want to transfer only some applications, files, and settings to the new PC, click the text link Choose What to Transfer, and continue to step two.
- Transfer Everything: If you want to transfer all applications, files, and settings to your new PC, click Next. Skipping steps two and three, go to step four to finalize the set up and start the transfer.
7. Choose What to Transfer
- User Accounts, Files, and Settings (No Applications): To transfer only user accounts, files, and settings, then choose this option and click Next. Skip step three and go to step four to complete the transfer.
Important: This option does NOT transfer applications. To transfer applications, click ‘Let Me Choose’ and make selections on what you want to transfer.
- Files Only Transfer: To transfer only files, choose this option and click Next. Skip step three and go to step four to complete the transfer.
Important: This option does NOT transfer applications, user accounts, or settings. To transfer these, click ‘Let Me Choose’ and make selections on what you want to transfer.
- Let Me Choose: To choose what applications, user accounts, files, and settings transfer, choose this option and click Next. Continue to step three to make these selections.
8. Transfer Summary
- Select an item you wish to customize. Once finished with an item, you will return to this screen.
- Click Next when finished customizing the transfer, and continue with step Start Transfer
- Applications: All applications that can be transferred are selected by default. If desired, you may deselect specific applications that you don’t want to transfer to the new PC.
Do not transfer:
- Applications incompatible with the operating system on the new PC. Occasionally this may occur when transferring from an older operating system to a newer operating system, or when transferring from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS.
- Applications already installed on the new PC.
- Applications with a trial version installed on one PC and the full version on the other PC.
IMPORTANT: Trial versions of applications should always be uninstalled from the new PC before transferring a full version of the application from the old PC.
- System tools, such as virus scanners, spyware detectors, firewall software, and desktop search utilities, are unlikely to transfer correctly.
IMPORTANT: “Unregistered Applications” are those that do not appear in the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel in Windows. The term “Unregistered” does not, in this case, refer to whether you have registered a given application with its manufacturer.
This Unregistered Applications list will often include applications that are specific to hardware installed on the old computer. These will only work on the hardware for which they are designed, and may interfere or conflict with hardware for which they are not designed. Note for ‘Files and Settings only’ and ‘Files only’ transfers: Applications will not be transferred, based on your previous selection
- Documents / Pictures / Videos / Music / Other Files: On each screen, all folders with files in each category are selected by default. Deselect any folders you don’t want to transfer. See step 3b for further instructions.
Note: To change the transfer destination for a folder, select the folder that you want to transfer to a different location. On the right side of the screen, the ‘Path’ text field will show the location of the folder on the old PC, and the ‘Target’ will show the current default transfer destination on the new PC. Enter a new transfer destination in the ‘Target’ text field as needed. Leave the ‘Path’ text field as it is.
- User Accounts: You may review and edit the settings for how user accounts will be transferred. See step 3c for further instructions.
- Advanced: You may review and edit settings for how drives and certain file types are transferred. Other custom changes can also be made to the transfer settings if needed (advanced users only). See step 3d for further instructions.
9. Start Transfer
Click Start Transfer to begin the PCmover transfer to your New PC. Depending on the speed of your connection, hardware configuration, and other factors, your transfer time may vary.
PCmover is now transferring all of your selected applications, data files, and registry settings to the new PC. Click OK and allow the transfer to complete.
The length of time required to perform the transfer depends on the configuration of the computers and the amount of data to be transferred and could be as much as several hours or more.
Note: On very rare occasions the transfer of data will not continue; if you do not see any progress for more than an hour, you should restart the transfer.
10. Transfer Complete
Congratulations! You have successfully transferred to your new PC.
At this point, if you used the Laplink Ethernet cable for your transfer and have a wired Internet connection, you should now unplug the Ethernet cable from your new PC and reconnect your Internet cable.
Internet connectivity is required so PCmover can install Microsoft Redistributable packages required by some of your applications.
You will need to restart your new PC for all of the settings to take effect. Click Finish to restart automatically.
Note: To maximize system compatibility, PCmover may not transfer certain system settings as well as hardware configurations. After the transfer, the following software may have to be reinstalled or reactivated on the new PC:
- Antivirus and antispyware applications
- Hardware-specific drivers
- Files with Digital Rights Management (e.g. copy-protected music files)
If reinstallation or reactivation does not resolve problems, you may need to contact the appropriate vendor for specific instructions.