Upgrading: All Downhill Goodyear AZ

Posted by : Matt Lake

This year has been a great time to buy new computers. Four hundred bucks will buy you a brand new entry-level system that runs rings around the midrange, $1,000 systems of four years ago. But buying a new computer comes with a new problem: What about everything that's on the old one?

This problem brings to mind the old joke about a janitor who loves his broom.

"I've used this same broom," he says, "For 40 years now. It's had six new handles, and two new heads, and it's still going strong."

The fact is, if a new PC looks and acts like the old one--only faster--the person using it thinks of it as the same computer--only better. The trick, of course, is to get the new system to look and act like the old one--only better. To do that, you need to keep all the files you use in the same folders, have the same color scheme, screensaver, and desktop wallpaper. You also need to ensure that all your Internet bookmarks or favorites are in place.

Three companies have been working on moving those settings from the old to the new. Windows XP operating systems include a feature called File and Setting Transfer Wizard that does a fair job of it. A program from Detto called IntelliMover does the same, using a two-headed USB cable as a virtual Northwest Passage for the migration. And a series of products from Miramar under the label Desktop DNA provide lots of options for migrating data, look-and-feel, and even applications from old computers to new o...

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