Best Windows 7 Defrag App

There is always a lot of controversy when it comes to disk defragmentation tools. Some people believe that you do not need a third-party disk defragmentation tool. Others are loyal to a specific program. Well, here's my thoughts. I will even tell you why.

I know that a lot of you are huge fans of free programs but this is one case in which I would recommend making an exception...

For regular 'home' users all defragmenters do the same good job... with one exception: Vopt is the only one capable of optimizing start-up files
INCLUDING realigning the pagefile. To do this the right way, a little bit of thinking is required.

Some say the size of your pagefile is depending on your installed RAM. Wrong.
It depends on your daily work. For example:

The "commit charge" of Designers working with Photoshop day in day out
is WAY higher than for the average guy who plays some games - no matter how much RAM is installed.

To find your "personal" pagefile size, use the computer as you normally would. After a few hours, open your Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and go to the Performance tab and check the "commit charge"

Performance
Total: RAM currently used
Limit: Physical RAM + current pagefile
Peak: Most RAM used today (well... peak)

As you can see, the difference is quite noticeable. You can reduce the size of your pagefile. Smaller pagefile = better performance.

Now press Win+Pause -> Advanced tab -> Performance -> Click Settings
-> Advanced tab -> Virtual Memory -> "Change"

By default "System managed size" is checked. Now Windows
tends to increase and decrease the filesize whenever it's bored, causing your pagefile to split into fragments which then causes performance loss.

To optimize this, check "Custom size" and lock the file by entering YOUR
personal value TWICE. Don't forget to click on "Set" afterward. Nowadays a value of 512MB is just fine. Don't go lower.

If you have, for example, 1GB of physical RAM and your "Peak" was 695MB (729,000 KB) set it to 512MB or 768MB

Windows will ask you to reboot your computer once you accept all changes. Do it.

Finally, run Vopt and run the Clean Tasks first to get rid of junk files. Select the Drive with your new pagefile (usually drive letter C) Click "Defragmenting" -> "Defrag pagefile"

The clever method - and Vopt is the ONLY one who does it:
Vopt moves the complete pagefile to the very middle of your HDD. Why? Because the middle or the center is the Idle-point for the HDD's shuttle. This ensures the LOWEST access time possible.

Furthermore, Vopt overrides loading AutoStart and some Core Applications during the next boot. Otherwise you couldn't access and/or move them. Sounds logical, right? I thought so too :)

This procedure is what I've been doing FIRST on a fresh system for the past 8 years.

Here is a link to the homepage. You can download a trial here.
Trial downloads are full and unrestricted product versions which are time-limited. You must register them to continue using them beyond the 30-day trial period.

Smart defrag is a neat little app that has some other tidy features on it and best of all it's free.



Smart Defrag

The main point I was trying to make is that this is the ONLY defrag program that will realign the pagefile and moves it to the very middle of your HDD so that access time is as low as possible. JkDefrag, MyDefrag, Smart Defrag, Puran Defrag, Auslogics Disk Defrag, UltraDefrag, Diskeeper and the built-in Windows Defrag cannot do this. Vopt is the ONLY defrag program that does and it noticeably increases overall system speed. The program also defrag quite quickly; so fast that daily defragmentations are very tolerable.

So many opinions about page file size over the years, with most of the people who actually wrote windows saying let the OS manage the file. In these days of fast CPU's and with 4+ Gigs or Ram common, I don't think you'll see a noticeable increase in overall system speed. My opinion.

If Vopt was free, great, but to pay for a program, only to acquire that specific feature which has questionable results on system performance...

Not saying you are wrong, just saying there are no doubt other things you can do for free that will have greater effect on system performance. I'll stick to my system managed page file, and free defrag programs. A Guy