Update 17-May: Offer is no longer available.
Update 16-May: Laplink acknowledges server overload and has extended the deadline on this offer. As of right now, it’s still working.
Laplink software is celebrating its 25th birthday today with a giveaway:
To celebrate this milestone, Laplink is offering a free copy of PCmover [today, May 15, 2008], to everyone who visits their web site. No purchase necessary, no strings attached, and no gimmicks.
PCmover automatically moves selected files, folders, settings, and even applications from an old PC to a new one. It’s the #1 selling migration product and is widely regarded as the best migration solution available. PCmover is even recommended by the official magazines for Windows XP and Vista.
The regular price for a download of PCmover is $50, but for one day only it’s completely free. You might occasionally get a cup of coffee free, but not a $50 piece of software –then again, not every day is Laplink’s 25th birthday.
I used PCmover last month to move programs and settings from one machine to another. It worked pretty well. Not perfect, but easier and more complete than the built-in Windows solution. It’s worth downloading a copy to have around for the next time you need to perform this task.
The company is also giving away some other goodies, so check it out:
Update: Not surprisingly, the Laplink servers seem to be under a wee bit of strain right now. I had to wait a while for several pages to load and chose to refresh a few page loads that appeared hung. But I was able to complete the transaction eventually. If you already have a Laplink account, it’s best to log in first. If you don’t have one, you might want to create an account first. (You’ll need it to complete the download.)
Offer ends tonight at midnight Pacific time.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
To their credit, Laplink has extended the download to accomodate high demand. Very nice good will move on their part!
I’m not positive I’ll ever use this tool for myself, but this will be dynamite for moving my mom’s ancient Windows 98 PC to a newer PC. I’ve been putting that task off because it will take hours to do manually. From the sound of it, it may still take hours, but at least I can just set it up, walk away, and come back later. There’s a lot to be said for not having to sit there and babysit it.