ZInstall - Anyone Used it to Migrate from XP to Windows 7?

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I've stumbled upon Zinstall about a week ago, it looks promising. I've asked some co-workers and I heard good feedback about Zinstall's tech support.

While XP Mode (Available in Win7 Pro & Ultimate) provides you a BLANK machine, Zinstall gives you a full machine, with everything you had.

Zinstall seems to be accissible to non-technical users, and solves a real problem for those who don't want to spend time in order to re-install everything right away.

I think I'll give it a try when I get my new HP G71.
 
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I've stumbled upon Zinstall about a week ago, it looks promising. I've asked some co-workers and I heard good feedback about Zinstall's tech support.

While XP Mode (Available in Win7 Pro & Ultimate) provides you a BLANK machine, Zinstall gives you a full machine, with everything you had.

Zinstall seems to be accissible to non-technical users, and solves a real problem for those who don't want to spend time in order to re-install everything right away.

I think I'll give it a try when I get my new HP G71.
Unless I am misunderstanding something on http://zinstall.com/faqhttp://zinstall.com/faq
I do not think that you can print to a USB printer from within the virtual environment!
'use non-storage USB device in XP applications':
for Windows 7 XP Mode is 'yes' and for Zinstall is 'no'.
 
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You could easily share your printer using standard windows “file & printer sharing” and just print through the shared printer.
This is not at all a problem, on the contrary, if you'd connect the USB printer directly to the XP, then you could not have used it to print in Win7, this is certainly not desirable. So in fact, I would prefer to use the shared printer.
 
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You could easily share your printer using standard windows “file & printer sharing” and just print through the shared printer.
This is not at all a problem, on the contrary, if you'd connect the USB printer directly to the XP, then you could not have used it to print in Win7, this is certainly not desirable. So in fact, I would prefer to use the shared printer.
Understood. Thank you.
 

HIL

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Zinstall is fine for migrating the usual information, such as e-mail, documents, pictures etc but you can transfer all that, apart from the programmes, using the Easy Transfer in Windows 7 and download the XP facility from Microsoft. Although it also does transfer powerful software systems, such as video editing software, it will not run them. If you interrogate System on the Zinstall virtual machine you will see that several of the drives, such as graphics, are marked Zinstall; the graphics being shown as' Zinstall graphics adaptor', which are insufficient to run video editing (and probably other graphics hungry software). My video editing programme also did not 'see' the firewire so I could not import any video. As the main reason for using this expensive piece of software was to be able to continue to use my video editing software, including all the add ons which are not transferrable in the latest version, it was pretty useless. I ended up using the Easy File Transfer anyway downloaded the XP facility from Microsoft and have reloaded all my files, time consuming but at least it all works and did not cost anything! The Zinstall 'XP vm' obviously does not see the hardware on your computer only the virtual environment created by Zinstall. Although Zinstall did response to my query, after two requests, their reply was unhelpful and referred me to the manufacturer of the video editing software - which in itself does not have a problem. A friend of mine has been trying to install Zinstall on his new machine (he told me about Zinstall in the first place) and I wish I had waited until he had tried to install it. He hit a problem and did get a quick response where Zinstall booked a live session and took over his machine, they could not help at that time as they said it was a registry issue and they would try to find a work around. That was over a week ago and he has heard nothing further. I too have contacted their support again but heard absolutely nothing. As long as you don't expect much from this software or their support, then I suppose you could say the product works. Personally, I wish I had not used it and had saved nearly £60.
 
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catilley1092

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I checked out the program, $89 US Dollars is a lot to fork over for this program. I have an external drive and can either backup or use the Easy Transfer program to accomplish this. And VM's are a piece of cake to create. While the program may appeal to some, it looks better on the web page than it probably does in action.
 
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This is a rip off

I also got this and tried to use it, but it died somewhere in the process of setting up and creating the image and won't run. I call them and the phone system doesn't work, just disconnects after you wait on hold for a couple minutes. If you get their machine you can leave a message and no one calls you back. They also don't respond to emails or submitting their web form.

I got this so I could import the "entire" machine so that I could continue using VB6 and bring in the components that I use with it - a couple of which are old out of circulation ocx or dll's that don't register when you try to use easy transfer and bring them into Win7. Don't know whether it would have worked for this or not since I can't get it to run at all and can't get their support to give me an answer.

Save your money, your time and your frustration level and just look for another solution. If it would perform as advertised it would be a great solution, but it doesn't perform and their support is non-existent.
 
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Zinstall

I used Zinstall XP7 to transfer 2 lap tops from Windows XP to Windows 7.
Anyone knows whether it works with Windows 98 as well ??
 

TrainableMan

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I am not familiar with the product at all but I find no mention of win 98 on it's website.
 
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Larry

[FONT=&quot]DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT. I could not get Zinstall SP7 to work on my computer because of my Internet Security Software. Zinstall support did try and help me - but they could not get it to work either. I requested a refund and they refused. I reminded them of their "guarantee" and they pointed out to me all the "fine-print" in their guarantee that really makes their guarantee worthless. The concept of the Zinstall software is good, but most people will have problems getting it installed correctly and it will not work for them. DON'T BUY!![/FONT]
 

yodap

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This is the second identical post from Larry. Maybe He'll come back when he's done posting his complaint on every forum on the web. :)
 

catilley1092

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That's my thinking. When I looked at the program, when this topic was more active, it looked like snake oil at best. Most likely, it's a scam, if it were that good, then word would have spread by now.

Plus, the fact that the "fine print" made their guarantee worthless, is a clear sign that it's not worth the web page that it's written on. An honest guarantee is supposed to be just that, and any "fine print" that makes it otherwise makes the sellers of the product look dishonest, to say the least. Truth probably is, it was a deception & a scam to begin with. It appeared as such to me, when I first saw it.

Cat
 

TrainableMan

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John, I don't think the issue was, might it work? I guess the problem is, is it worth taking a chance it won't work and then the company refusing to stand behind their product by issuing a refund. If they don't have enough faith in their own product to stand behind their money-back-guarantee then I wouldn't have any desire to try it.
 
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John, I don't think the issue was, might it work? I guess the problem is, is it worth taking a chance it won't work and then the company refusing to stand behind their product by issuing a refund. If they don't have enough faith in their own product to stand behind their money-back-guarantee then I wouldn't have any desire to try it.
I think the issue was - might it work. And it did for me, and it did for 9 out of 10 reviewers i checked before buying the thing.
I don't know what really went down in Larry's case (if he's a real person?). There will always be those people who think they got screwed some how. He just sounds very bitter to me, and that's kind of sad.
 

TrainableMan

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I think the issue was - might it work.
Yes, you are right, it IS the issue of the original posters question. I guess, more accurately, I should have said "I don't think MY ISSUE would be whether it MIGHT work but rather how often it doesn't"

and it did [work] for 9 out of 10 reviewers [that] i checked before buying the thing.
Personally, a 90% satisfaction does not seem an acceptable rating to be trusting all my most vital personal data too. I think this would be an issue/concern for me and I think it should be a concern of anyone considering buying the product. For example if only 90% of the buyers of Windows 7 thought it was any good then they would have to call it Windows Vista II, not Windows 7 :p

I don't know what really went down in Larry's case (if he's a real person?). There will always be those people who think they got screwed some how. He just sounds very bitter to me, and that's kind of sad.
He had to be a real person; bots couldn't have registered on this site. If you mean it might be some kid playing around, Larry's bitterness is the biggest thing that makes me believe the post IS sincere; it seems logical to me that he actually searched the internet after he got screwed and is warning everybody about his bad experience.

But, again, you could be correct, he might be acting and he just has way too much time on his hands so he picked a product at random and decided to go posting how terrible it is. Taking the time to register on a forum just to post about that one specific product.

Then again, maybe John Reed isn't sincere. Maybe he works for the company who makes the product and they find it cheaper to troll for bad reviews and post positive ones to counter real negatives because it is easier than fixing the weaknesses in the software.

Truth is you can't believe everything you read on the internet. I'm glad it worked for you John, if you are real, and I'm sorry you got screwed Larry, if you are real. I already upgraded so I won't be risking my money on a product that, using John's numbers, disappoints 1 out of 10 paying customers. To the rest of you - good luck making up your own mind.
 

Nibiru2012

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To spend $89 for this program is ludicrous! What a ripoff!

You could buy an external drive setup and transfer all pertinent documents, photos, files, folders, etc., and have something a lot better.

If one doesn't want to take the time to do a proper install of Windows 7 and subsequent software, then don't upgrade to Windows 7. Stay with XP until it expires several years from now.
 

catilley1092

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You don't need to pay anyone $89 to transfer your documents and settings from XP to Windows 7. There are several ways to retain these things, CD's, DVD's, USB thumb drives & external drives, some ISP's offer a certain amount of "online backup" if you need it. I'm not the most computer literate person in the world, but I do know how to store documents. And should I need it, Acronis offers a "file backup" as well as full backups.

For XP users, there's even a special cable that you can buy to do it all. The Windows 7 Easy Transfer cable (cannot be just "any" cable) will work.

I'd never pay anyone, especially a company that's unheard of, to do this for me. And furthermore a 90% rating just isn't good enough for me. That's one in a ten chance I'll get burned, and with my luck, I'll be that one that does get burned. When I buy on eBay, any seller that has less than a 99% rating, doesn't get my business, and even then, the seller must have a minimum of 3,000 transactions, for me to buy from them.

One last thing to note here, if this software was as good as it claims to be, by now everyone would be wanting it. It's been on the market for quite some time, and until it came up here recently, I've yet to hear or see a single review (positive or negative) on it.

I believe that I'll pass on this one. Looks too good to be true.

Cat
 

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