Description:
Migrating your stuff from your old PC to a new one is a daunting task, and often a source of bewilderment and frustration. Detto Technologies' IntelliMover is designed to make the process a simple, step-by-step procedure that anyone can follow, even a staunch computer newbie. It achieves its goal, although it would be nice if it was designed to do more. IntelliMover replicates the GUI and application settings from your old PC to your new one through a graceful and friendly interface. Available with a parallel or USB cable, it's a complete migration package in one product. The installation procedure includes an animated tour of the program, and it assumes that you're ready to migrate: after installing, it launches right into its step-by-step transfer function. You can, however, cancel it and restart the process any time by launching the application from the Start menu. Capable of transferring settings from old Windows operating systems to newer ones, the process truly is as easy as Detto makes it out to be. It assumes that you've already installed the applications you intend to use on the new computer, as the software won't transfer entire programs, only files (such as Word documents, image files, everything in your My Documents folder, and so on) and settings. During the step-by-step process, it searches the old computer for anything it's able to transfer, offers to update itself via the Internet in case any patches have been released, and then instructs you to install the item and follow the steps on the new computer. After the initial transfer is complete, you can run a drag-and-drop file transfer utility to pick up any files that the process might have missed. In our tests, IntelliMover recognized most applications and games, but it did miss a handful of them. It recognized and prepared to transfer settings for Quake III Arena, for instance, but not for more recent titles such as Jedi Outcast. It also missed PowerStrip, a popular video customization application, and Mozilla, a browser alternative to Internet Explorer and Netscape. Worse, it refuses to transfer entire applications, forcing you to install them before the move (probably for copyright concerns, but we see no logical reason that it can't move applications instead of copying them). The documentation is thin and sparse, and doesn't include a troubleshooting section, and although we didn't encounter any problems, that doesn't mean nobody will. Regardless, IntelliMover is a simple and capable migration application that takes the mystery out of moving your old files and settings to a new PC. It does exactly what it's advertised to do, and it does it well. --Joel Durham, Jr.
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