If you regularly use two or more PCs then you’ll know that sometimes it’s necessary to transfer files between them. Occasionally this is easy, and you’ll just need to copy some documents from your laptop to your PC, for instance. But often it’s much more complicated, requiring you to transfer files in both directions to get each system up-to-date, a time-consuming business where it’s easy to make mistakes.

Life could be much simpler if you automated these tasks, then, and there are few better candidates for the job than Laplink’s specialist file transfer and synchronisation tool PCsync 6. In just a few clicks you could, say, set up a sync job to copy new or modified Word documents and Excel spreadsheets from the Documents folder on your laptop, to the Documents folder on your PC.

Not quite what you need? New Mac compatibility means you can now sync with Apple Macintosh computers, a real step forward in PCsync versatility. A helpful wizard gives you full control over sync direction (folder a to b, b to a, or bidirectional transfers), the types of files to be synchronised, and what to do if there’s a conflict (a file has changed on both systems, for instance). And sync jobs can be run manually, when you plug in a device (a USB hard drive, say), or on the schedule of your choice.
There’s plenty to decide, then, but the default settings are well chosen and it’s generally easy to set things up. Which is just as well, because the Help file is a little basic (there’s not even a Search option).

You’ll still need to connect your two systems, of course, but there are plenty of options on offer here, too. PCsync 6 will work across an existing network connection, wired or wireless, automatically detecting other computers running PCsync (the licence allows you to install it on up to 3 systems). Alternatively you can directly your systems using special Laplink Ethernet or USB cables, the Windows Easy Transfer cables from third-party manufacturers like Belkin, or some other third-party cables (we tried an ancient “USB network” cable and it worked just fine).

Transfer speeds will of course be dependent on your connection technology of choice, but in general we found they were much better than expected. This is probably due to Laplink’s SpeedSync technology, which ensures that only the changed portions of files are transferred. Its effects will vary depending on file type, but in some cases it can make a huge difference to your bandwidth requirements.

This extra speed means PCsync 6 doubles well as a backup program, quickly mirroring files to external hard drives or across your network for safe keeping.

And a powerful feature set is rounded off with the Mac Migration Wizard. If you’ve decided to replace your tired old laptop with a shiny MacBook Pro, say, then this will help you to transfer your documents, music, videos and more with the minimum of hassle.