Many businesses who thankfully, it appears in retrospect, skipped Vista are now considering upgrading their aging XP desktops to Windows 7 or 8. And while there are some crude tools from Microsoft to help with this transition, there are better choices from third-party vendors that can mass migrate desktops while preserving some of the existing user information. There are at least six different products that I have looked at, and here are links to my video or textual reviews so you can get a feel for them yourself. These reviews began in the fall of 2009 and continued up until April 2010 and were published on ITexpertVoice.com, a Dell-sponsored but otherwise independent editorial site focused on Windows 7 related issues.
- Dell/Kace Kbox 2100 ($4500 for 100 PCs, keeps some apps, hardware appliance)
- Laplink PC Mover ($20-$60 per PC, single PC upgrade, keeps most apps)
- Microsoft automated installation tools (WAIK, free, keeps some apps)
- Prowess SmartDeploy ($2000 per enterprise, keeps most apps) and a written review published on eWeek here
- Viewfinity User Migration (free in beta, no apps retained)
- Zinstall ($89 per PC, single PC deployment, not recommended
In addition to these videos, I have done others directly for the vendors themselves on products that can be used to migrate desktops to Windows 7:
Here are a few different versions of various summary articles that I have written:
- CIOupdate.com (5/10)
- SearchEnterpriseDesktop (5/10)
- ITworld (6/10)
In addition to these reviews, I have also done a couple of podcasts/webinars on the topic. Here are links to these as well (and you can find copies of my slide decks here):
- Webinar with Adam Kuhn, IT manager for American Public Power Network and Dell and Prowess product managers (April 2010)
- Computer America podcast with Corey Holzman and Tim Taylor (April 2010)
- Chicago Windows User Group (May 2010) — Download the CWUG slide deck here
- Nashville AITP (July 2010)
- St. Louis AITP (August 2010)
David Strom, professional speaker 
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