Windows 8 is scheduled to be made available to the public in a beta version later in February. However, some users may want to move their data from a Windows 7 PC to one that is running the Windows 8 beta. Today, the third party company Laplink announced plans to release PCmover Windows 8 Beta Assistant.
The free software will be available to download starting on Thursday, January 5 at the Laplink.com web site. The software is compatible with the current Windows 8 Developer Preview and will be compatible with all beta and release candidate versions of Windows 8 when they are released. The software will allow users to have free use for unlimited migrations of their data until July 2012. The software will only work with the 64-bit version of Windows 7 and the Windows 8 port must also be 64-bit.
Laplink CTO Jack Wilson is quoted in the press release as saying, "Here at Laplink, we use PCmover to facilitate testing Windows 8. PCmover enables us to automatically provision several different Windows 8 virtual machines complete with a unique arrangement of development tools, debug software, SDKs, and environmental variables. Then, after PCmover sets up the VMs, we create snapshots of each so we can restore to that particular state as needed."
The PCmover Windows 8 Beta Assistant will use a set-up wizard in order to quickly transfer files from Windows 7 to Windows 8 and provides a user guide for those who require a more complicated set-up experience.