IT managers and teams prefer PCmover Enterprise over Microsoft’s User State Migration Tool (USMT)

Laplink Software, Inc., the global leader in PC migration and creator of the only software of its kind recommended by Microsoft®, Intel®, and all major PC manufacturers, announced new survey results that reveal that IT managers and teams prefer PCmover Enterprise over Microsoft’s User State Migration Tool (USMT).

Laplink surveyed IT managers and staff who are using USMT to upgrade PCs to the latest version of Windows and found that, while many appreciated USMT ’s time-saving benefits, 25% of respondents noted it was difficult to implement. More than half (51%) of the USMT users surveyed stated they desire support for transferring applications — something USMT does not provide. IT staff at 55% of these companies must manually reinstall applications for end users leading to the request for application-transfer capability in a migration tool. The majority of respondents also indicated a preference for increased vendor assistance, training, and technical support for their PC refresh projects.

“Because USMT is actually a toolkit and specifically will not transfer applications, there is a mismatch between IT’s desires and USMT’s capabilities,” explained Thomas Koll, CEO of Laplink Software. “This is apparent in the survey responses. And that’s why we provide PCmover Enterprise with full support for automatically transferring applications. Plus, our company is known for its first-class technical support, which provides help with configuring PCmover to meet the specific needs of each customer.”

The survey respondents included specific comments about USMT including, “It (USMT) works, but it’s not pretty.” Other IT staff and managers declared there is a “high learning curve,” and many said that USMT “is powerful, but hard to use.” Microsoft acknowledges that USMT isn’t the ideal solution for every PC refresh scenario, emphasizing it is intended for “large scale” situations where customization is not required and suggests PCmover be considered as an alternative.

“These survey results underscore the significant pain points IT managers and staff are facing as they try to quickly and efficiently transfer data, settings, and applications as part of a PC refresh project,” added Koll. “Even if USMT works well on half of the PC deployments in an organization, it still presents post-migration difficulties. We designed PCmover Enterprise to be fully customizable and flexible to meet the needs of all PC refresh projects.”

Enterprises and large organizations in need of a better solution to deploy new PCs, upgrade existing PCs, or replace them during routine maintenance and break/fix scenarios can use PCmover Enterprise. As the only PC migration tool recommended by Microsoft and Intel, PCmover Enterprise will save your organization time and money – more than $300 per PC, according to industry research.

PCmover Enterprise is proven to save organizations hours of IT time and resources throughout PC hardware and operating systems refreshes. In fact, organizations can save more than 60% on both hard and soft costs by using PCmover Enterprise. PCmover significantly reduces end-user downtime and associated IT labor costs, decreases post migration helpdesk calls, and can reduce common operational costs like shipping, storage, and third-party services.

Organizations interested in reducing the cost and hassle of all types of PC refresh projects can request a free, fully functional copy of PCmover Enterprise at enterprise.laplink.com.

About Laplink Software, Inc.
For nearly 40 years, Laplink has been a global leader in consumer, SMB, and enterprise PC migration software, and has earned the loyalty and trust of millions of organizations and customers worldwide. The company’s PCmover software saves time and budget, reduces migration risks, and increases efficiency. Only PCmover’s proprietary technology includes full selectivity that transfers data, applications, and settings from an old PC to a new one, even if the two PCs run different versions of Windows. The privately held company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington.