Recommended Posts

Im pretty sure that Microsoft tweaked the defragger in Longhorn Server so its more informative. I could be wrong but I swear I read this somewhere. If its true, atleast with a bit of luck, Defrag.exer will be updated with Vista SP1.

Yeah, I have Longhorn Server and it is more informative and more flexible. For example, if you want to defrag only one volume or partition you can select it alone.

i use powerdefragmentergui which is a frontend for sysinternals' contig.exe

http://www.excessive-software.eu.tt/

http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Contig.zip

you can defrag whole drives, folders or even just single files. still no fancy chart to look at though.... :p

Yeah I noticed that the defragger in Vista is actually good, I just wish it had a nice block graph that I could look at.

It doesn't make any sense to have the graph or to show progress with Vista's defragging algorithm. As I understand it, it does one pass, then decides whether or not to go again, so it doesn't have any clue as to how long its going to take until its done.

The past several threads of this nature that have popped up I've mentioned Auslogics Disk Defrag?>. My opinion has not changed. Aside from the price (free), it is a magnificent app.

Auslogics Disk Defrag?[/b]b>

Awesome mate!! Thanx:)

Any chance for a clear resent, temp and Defrag only disk C as well?

Thanx again!

Sure no problem here is the script to clear recent,temp and defrag c drive only.

Save As SysMaintence_C_Only.vbs

 Const MY_RECENT_DOCUMENTS = &H8&
 Dim Arg1, ColItems, File, GB, ObjItem, StrF, StrFItem, strComputer, Var1
  strComputer = "." 
 Dim Shell :Set Shell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
 Dim Act   :Set Act = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
 Dim Fso   :Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 Dim Wmi   :Set Wmi = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2") 
  Set StrF = Shell.Namespace(MY_RECENT_DOCUMENTS)
  Set StrFItem = StrF.Self
  Set ColItems = StrF.Items
'/-> Clear Recent List 
   If ColItems.Count = 0 Then
	Act.Popup "Recent is Empty, Nothing To Delete",3,"Clear Recent",4128
   Else 
	Act.Popup "Preparing To Clean Up The Recent Folder",3,"Clear Recent",4128
   For Each ObjItem in ColItems
	Set Arg1 = Fso.GetFile(ObjItem.Path)
	Arg1.Delete()
   Next
  End If 
'/-> Clears User Tmp Folder
  Set Var1 = Fso.GetFolder(Fso.GetSpecialFolder(2))
  Set File = Var1.Files 
  Act.Popup "Preparing To Clean Up User Temp" & vbCrLf & Var1.Path,3,Var1.Name,4128 
  For Each StrF In File
   If InStr(StrF.Name,".bmp") Then 
	Else 
	 Set Arg1 = Fso.GetFile(StrF.Path) 
	 On Error Resume Next 
	Arg1.Delete()
   End If 
  Next
'/-> Defrag All Drives
  GB = Int(1073741824)
  Set ColItems = Wmi.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_LogicalDisk",,48) 
  For Each ObjItem in ColItems 
   If ObjItem.DriveType = 3 Then 
'/-> Defrag C Drive Only 
	If InStr(ObjItem.Caption,"C") Or InStr(ObjItem.Caption,"c") Then 
	 Var1 = objItem.Size - objItem.FreeSpace
	 Act.Popup "Preparing To Defrag This Drive" & vbCrLf &_
	 Space(3) & "Drive Letter"& vbTab & ObjItem.Caption & vbCrLf &_
	 Space(3) & "Volume Name" & vbTab & objItem.VolumeName & vbCrLf &_
	 Space(3) & "Total Size" & vbTab & FormatNumber(objItem.Size/GB,2) & " GB" & vbCrLf &_
	 Space(3) & "Free Space" & vbTab & FormatNumber(objItem.FreeSpace/GB,2) & " GB" & vbCrLf &_
	 Space(3) & "Used Space" & vbTab & FormatNumber(Var1/GB,2) & " GB", 3,"Defrag",4128
	 Act.Run("Defrag.exe " & ObjItem.Caption &"\"),2,True 
	End If 
   End If 
  Next
  Act.Popup "Finished The Defrag",7,"Finshed Defrag",4128

That's a good find, thanks. I think the first item mentioned alone is a good argument to continue with what's built in.

Also, it doesn't bother me so much that Defrag is Spartan, since defrag really is a scheduled task at heart. Who wants to be around when it's happening? Vista's built-in scheduler defaults to defragging all drives though, which not everyone's going to want. To change it:

1) Search your Start menu for "Sched..."

2) Once in Task Scheduler, find the Defrag task in the Microsoft/Windows section.

3) Click on ScheduledDefrag and bring up its Properties.

4) Go to the Actions and edit the arguments section as appropriate.

The "-c" switch is the one that means "all volumes," so I got rid of that and replaced it with "c:" for just that drive. So the arguments read:

c: -i

("-i" just means that it won't activate if it's seen recent user activity)

Personally I'd still like a progress bar even if it's not fully accurate. I don't see the point having it running while I'm using the computer. I am pleased to see scheduling Defrag is back the XP one (which had an awful interface) had no scheduler, even though the 9x one does.

It's good to see it no longer tries to defrag to 100% as that's ultimately pointless and hard to achieve anyway. I used to run Diskeeper under XP and while it's excellent for Home Users it's really overkill. Servers fine but Home Users it's not necessary. A modern hard disk really shouldn't get that fragmented anyway. It also ran in the background all the time which I really wasn't too keen on.

I say stick with Vista's, choose a suitable schedule (mine is set for Sunday's at 6am) and forget about it.

OO Software just released version 10 of their software; see http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oodefrag/

Anyone already has some experience with this version 10 on Vista (Ultimate) 32 bit?

Or is PerfectDisk 8 "da thing to have installed on Vista"?

Yes, I've been using OOs v10 all day. It's pretty good.

Although whats strange is this. I had PerfectDisk 8 installed, defragged all drives. Uninstalled and installed OO 10.

Analysis showed a worrying 33% fragmentation on the Windows drive, which had just been thoroughly defragged with PerfectDisk.

So I did a COMPLETE/Name defrag with OO, and the fragmentation % wouldn't go below 27.

Thinking this may be due to locked files, I did an offline defrag also, but it had no effect.

I can't seem to achieve 0% fragmentation with it.

I'll probably stick with PerfectDisk.

  • 2 weeks later...
Does anyone know of a defragger that stresses how well it actually defrags the drive? I really don't care about how long it takes(well no more than 12 hours for 60 GB of data). I just 0% of defragmentation!!!

See post at to of this page.

  • 5 weeks later...

I've been using DK (Diskeeper) since Win98, so that was my first choice on the new laptop with Vista. I got DK2007 for it and my desktop (still on XP). It works great on the desktop, but for some reason there are a couple files on the laptop that it can never defrag. There's even times where they don't show up. They have some type of CLSID for the file name, but it's so long you can't read it all in the display (see attachments). Any other DK user see this happening?

Because of this, I was looking at the Auslogic one to try out. I saw a couple people mention that here. With the past history of the default defragger, I didn't want to try that one. Has anyone else tried multiple ones before going with the one they selected in their post?

Many thanks,

Ed S.

Vista_fragments.doc

Vista_fragments_2.doc

Edited by Ed Szuba

I just use the built-in defragger running at 02:00 everyday when I'm asleep! ... good enough for me ..

I'm not bothered about all the bells and whistles ... as for watching the pretty bar charts (meaningless IMHO) ... whats the point in that!, I've got better things to do with my time ...

  • 1 year later...

I think you should stick with the built-in defragmenter. It's unintrusive and almost completely automatic. Why would you want to sit there and watch your drives being defragmented? You could also use Task Scheduler to automate Disk Cleanup. Seamless, automatic and free.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Latest Rufus update improves new Windows 11 install method by Taras Buria Pete Batard, the maker of Rufus, a very popular app for creating bootable Windows (and other OS) media, has released a new beta version of its app. Rufus 4.15 beta is now out, and while it offers no new features, there are all sorts of improvements and fixes, including for the new Windows 11 installation method that was introduced in version 4.14 in early May. The "Silent Windows 11 installation" is a new feature whose goal is to automate operating system installation. All you have to do is boot from the drive, and then Rufus takes over, doing all things for you, such as setting up a new account, skipping ads and prompts, and more. It is a very handy tool, but initially, it had some bugs and issues that required addressing. With version 4.15 beta, Rufus is fixing that, particularly a bug with installation failing at 75%, crashes on Snapdragon X-based PCs, and more. Here is the changelog: Rufus 4.15 beta is now available for download from its GitHub repository. If you have never used Rufus before, you can check out our guide here. It is a very useful utility to have, as it allows you to deal with plenty of Windows 11's annoyances, which are still there, despite Microsoft's ongoing efforts to fix them.
    • Microsoft fixes one of Excel Copilot's most frustrating limitations by Usama Jawad Microsoft began integrating Copilot into Excel a couple of years ago and has been upgrading it with new functionalities since then. While some changes have been controversial, Microsoft is hoping to win over users by allowing them to be more productive via Copilot. To that end, it has now announced a Copilot improvement that may actually be appreciated by people who use it regularly. Excel customers often use the Copilot prompt box to issue instructions to format and customize their data, but it can become quite tiring to keep repeating the same instructions again and again. Microsoft now allows you to define Copilot personalization rules for formatting, naming conventions, formulas, and report styles. These can be accessed via Settings > Personalization, where you can explain your rules in natural language like "Always format currency in USD with no decimals", and just let Copilot take care of the rest. Microsoft is going a step further in this direction by allowing you to set workbook rules too. These rules are stored as a .Rules sheet, and are preserved while the workbook is shared. This fosters collaboration while making sure that standard rules govern the Copilot editing experience across the organization. Other advantages of this capability include pointing it to specific examples, defining dynamic formulas, and referencing an entire sheet and asking Copilot to infer rules based on that. You can leverage this feature by opening Copilot in Excel, clicking on "+", and selecting Create workbook rules. If you have an existing .Rules sheet, you can simply start listing the rules in column A as well. Personalization features are available to all Copilot in Excel users across the web, Mac, and Windows. Meanwhile, workbook rules are currently being previewed for Windows and Mac customers on the Insiders channel. General availability is scheduled after a few weeks, but a concrete date is currently unknown. Overall, the Excel capability is quite similar to ChatGPT's memory features, which allow you to permanently store items in the AI model's context window.
    • Imagine you still haven't discovered Total Commander that is doing all those things for three decades already...
    • This sounds like underneath the nice marketing spin, either someone at Adobe got tired of their lazy devs and asked Microsoft to help them sort at least some of Adobe's ancestral spaghetti code to make it go faster, or Microsoft wanted Adobe's crap to run better on Windows to make it look better when compared to Apple, so they offered to intervene. Either way, GOOD.
    • My favorite file manager for Windows 11 finally gets a long-requested feature by Taras Buria Files is among the best File Explorer alternatives for Windows 10 and 11. This free app is packed with all sorts of features and conveniences, but there is one crucial feature that is still missing—Tree View. Fortunately, the latest update in the Preview channel finally delivers it. With version 4.1.4, which is now available for download in the Preview channel, developers implemented Tree View, a new mode that displays folders in an expandable hierarchy. Windows 11's stock File Explorer always had this feature, but it was nowhere to be found in Files until now. Starting with the latest preview update, you can expand each drive and its nested folders without leaving the current location and then open the folder you need in the main view. To try Tree View in Files, update the app to the latest preview version, then click the small arrow next to a drive to expand its content. The developers say they are rolling out Tree View in Preview first to gather feedback from users and improve the feature before bringing it to all in the stable channel. In addition to Tree View, Files 4.1.14 improves the Windows Fonts folder. You can now preview each font directly in Files with no need to open the built-in font viewer. For now, these two features are only available in the Preview channel. For those using the stable release, developers recently released version 4.1.3, with improvements for the built-in tag system, on-demand folder size calculation, and plenty of various fixes. You can check out the full release notes here. You can download Files from the Microsoft Store (paid version) or its official website (free).
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      Vincian earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      Jocimo earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      suprememobiles48 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Prasann earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      517
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      172
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      90
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      79
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      68
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!