First Look: Belkin Easy Transfer Cable for Windows Vista and Laplink PCmover for Windows Vista

Products offer two very different approaches to smoothing the transfer of files from XP to Vista environments.

The Belkin Easy Transfer Cable for Windows Vista ($40) and the Laplink PCmover for Windows Vista ($60) can handle some (though not all) of the heavy lifting involved in transferring programs and data from an older Windows XP machine to a new Windows Vista PC, but the quality and quantity of help varies.

Belkin's product is a bidirectional USB 2.0 cable that leverages the Easy Transfer software in Windows XP and Vista for moving documents and settings only. You must install the included driver on your old Windows XP PC (no installation required for Vista) and then plug the cable into both systems. Easy Transfer takes over and starts the migration--at least in theory. In practice, I had to restart the process several times to get the transfer going. (I did not try the limited edition of PCmover, also for documents and settings only, that Belkin throws in.)

Moving apps requires an additional operation: You must download the free beta of Easy Transfer Companion from Microsoft's Web site and install it on both the XP and Vista PCs. Again, I ...

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Yardena Arar