Corporate Desktop refresh is an essential ongoing role of IT Departments. Maintaining up to date systems reduces risk and streamline management of EndPoint Devices.A delayed desktop operating system refresh cycle will inevitably increase support costs as IT staff support multiple Operating systems. Older systems can also negatively impact user productivity.
Yes, regular desktop refresh is essential. So why is it such a pain in the neck to perform?
The Challenge of Desktop Refresh
So what is the challenge of a corporate desktop refresh? Most laptop users want continuity. Users don’t care about new operating system features. They want their computer to work as expected, with icons in the right place, with shortcuts, mapped drives & all the dozens of other customisations they have configured.
Cibecs PC Migration Pro makes it super easy for the IT Helpdesk to issue a new, up to date laptop and remotely migrate ALL of a users profile customisations. Hey, the helpdesk doesn’t even need hands-on with the old or new device.
Demo of Cibecs PC Migration Pro completing a Desktop Migration
Check out this video – a short demonstration showing how an old Windows 7 user can easily be upgraded to Windows 10 – with a single click from a cloud-based management console.
What Cibecs PC Migration Pro Actually Does
PC Migration Pro is a cloud-managed migration tool that transfers an entire user profile — documents, desktop layout, application settings, browser bookmarks, mapped network drives, printer configurations, and personal customisations — from one device to another. It works across different Windows versions (Windows 7 to 10, Windows 10 to 11, or between same-version devices) and across different hardware manufacturers.
The key difference between PC Migration Pro and manual migration methods (USB drives, network shares, or Windows Easy Transfer) is that the entire process is orchestrated from a central cloud console. The IT helpdesk does not need physical access to either the old or the new device. This is a significant advantage for organisations with distributed workforces where employees are based in different offices, working from home, or travelling.
The Real Cost of Getting Desktop Refresh Wrong
Desktop refresh projects fail for predictable reasons. According to industry benchmarks, a manual PC migration takes between 4 and 8 hours per device when you account for data transfer time, application reinstallation, profile reconfiguration, and user acceptance testing. For an organisation with 500 endpoints, that translates to 2,000–4,000 hours of IT labour — before accounting for the productivity lost by each user waiting for their new machine to be ready.
The hidden costs are often worse than the direct labour:
- Data loss claims — Users discover missing files weeks after migration, often when they need them most. Without a complete migration tool, some files inevitably get left behind on the old device.
- Support tickets — “My Outlook rules are gone”, “My desktop shortcuts are missing”, “My browser saved passwords didn’t transfer” — these tickets flood the helpdesk for weeks after a poorly executed refresh.
- Shadow IT growth — Frustrated users start storing files in personal cloud accounts or on USB drives to protect themselves from the next migration, creating data governance problems.
How the Migration Process Works
Cibecs PC Migration Pro follows a straightforward workflow:
- Discovery — The Cibecs agent on the source device scans and catalogues all user data, application settings, and profile customisations.
- Transfer — Data is compressed and encrypted, then transferred directly from the source device to the destination device. There is no intermediate staging server required, which reduces both transfer time and infrastructure costs.
- Application — On the destination device, the Cibecs agent unpacks the migrated profile data and applies it to the correct locations. The user logs in to find their desktop looking exactly as it did before — icons in the same positions, mapped drives connected, browser bookmarks intact.
- Verification — The cloud console provides a complete report of what was transferred, including any files that were skipped due to locks or permissions issues, giving IT full visibility.
The process supports live migration, meaning the user can continue working on the old device while the initial data transfer runs in the background. When the new device is ready for handover, a final delta sync captures any changes made since the initial transfer.
Who Benefits Most
Cibecs PC Migration Pro is designed for organisations with 30 or more endpoints where the scale of the refresh project makes manual methods impractical. It is particularly well suited to:
- Professional services firms (accounting, legal, consulting) where staff laptops contain years of client documents and customised application configurations
- Government departments running mandatory upgrade cycles on fixed timelines
- Education institutions refreshing staff and lab devices during semester breaks
- Healthcare organisations where clinical workstations must be migrated with minimal disruption to patient-facing services
Cibecs is distributed in Australia and the Pacific Islands by Cloud Ready Solutions. Partners can request a trial through CRS to evaluate Migration Pro against their own desktop refresh requirements.