LOOKING TO BUY a new Vista PC but don't want to leave your carefully-honed XP software image behind? Even more troublesome than installing the programs can be the process of getting all those little settings right. That's if you remember all the little tweaks you made in the first place.

A PC migration applica-tion such as PC Mover 3.0 can (usually) help ease your transition.

PC Mover seeks out and copies common data files, program settings and the files and Registry informa¬tion that contribute to the look and feel of your Pc. Unlike its rivals, however, version 3.0 takes the process a step further and copies your applications, too.

Transfers can be performed via USB, LAN, or CDjDVD. Laplink includes a USB-to-USB transfer cable with the program. After installing the software on both your PCs, simply attach the cable and you're all set to move data.

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Four of our five test migrations worked fine, but we had trouble trying to migrate applications from a 750GB system to one with only 250GB of drive space. We instructed the utility to copy all of our apps, but because we had to deselect several drive partitions to save space, PC Mover didn't copy the apps on the deselected partitions. Neither did it copy our Firefox settings.

Verdict
PC Mover will migrate your settings and programs nicely but bear in mind that, should your image stray from the norm, you might need to reinstall some apps.