How we did it

We installed the products on identical Compaq iPAQ 733-MHz workstations connected to a network with a single Windows 2000 Server running on a Compaq ProLiant 5500R with dual 550 Xeon processors and 512M bytes of memory. All personality packages were saved to the server for access across the network.

To measure the difficulty and performance of the personality transfer process, we looked at moving a user from Windows 98 on one computer to Windows 2000 Professional on another. For the machine-to-machine transfer, the Windows 98 machine had Office 97 installed and approximately 30M bytes of .doc files in various directories. The Win 2000 computer had a fresh install of the operating system and Office 2000.

In the ease-of-use area, we looked at each product to see how automated the process of making the transfer was and how the product makes the task easier. We paid particular attention to the task of performing the upgrade under remote control and deducted points if the job could not be done without visiting the workstation.

To measure the administration functions, we looked at features a network administrator would use, such as customization scripting, unique parameter generation (such as network name) and file-transfer rules.