This may or may not be new, but VMWare has a product that can turn a physical PC into a virtual machine:

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

What this means is that I can take my old PC that I've had for 5 years or more, and turn it into a virtual machine. Then install that onto my brand new machine and get rid of the old one.

The major thing stopping me from switching 100% to my new PC is all of the little applications and data I have accumulated over the years. For instance, I do my taxes using QuickTax or similar computer programs. I have 7 or 8 years of this tax software installed (1 per year). To switch to a new machine, should I bother reinstalling all past years of tax software? Can I even find the CD's and the license keys?

I'd like to start over. But I'd like to have the old PC on standby, in case I have a need for some little used application. This is perfect.