Utilities Starter Kit

The Utilities Starter Kit for Windows is a collection of some of the best freeware tools to replace and enhance core Windows tasks. Defraggers, system cleaners, uninstallers, Task Manager replacements, launchers, and disk space managers all have a place here.

The best in security freeware can be found in our Security Starter Kit; the Windows Starter Kit gives you a collection of essential freeware browsers, jukeboxes, and more to get you going.

Defraggers

Fragmentation occurs when data is broken up into discontinuous pieces. Though Windows comes with a defragger, third-party vendors have improved so greatly on the concept that these are must-haves.

Smart Defrag

CNET editors' rating: 5.0 stars

Our favorite free defragger two years in a row, IOBit's Smart Defrag surpasses the competition in two major areas: Smart Defrag is faster, and it utilizes a perpetual defragger that runs as a background process but doesn't slow down your system.

When running in the background, the program only eats up 14MB of RAM, so it's possible to run it smoothly even on older machines. Along with quick analysis and scans, Smart Defrag boasts a scheduler and some customization features, like offering a deep defrag versus a less time-consuming one, and running at boot-up or shutdown. Overall, it's a handy defragger with plenty of options for both novices and power users.

Auslogics Disk Defrag

CNET editors' rating: 5.0 stars

Auslogics Disk Defrag is another excellent choice, with only slightly fewer options than Smart Defrag. An easy-to-read drop-down menu holds your hard-drive selections; choose one and Disk Defrag instantly displays the drive's size, used space, and free space. The program even displays a pie graph for you visual types. The sector map makes it easy to see how much of the drive is fragmented, allocated, and free. As the program churns away, the defragged sectors are displayed in blue. There's also a real-time defragger that can be set to run while your system is idle.

Disk Defrag is fast, even on older XP systems. A handy HTML report is prepared after each defrag session. The summary displays total files and folders defragged, and the detail section lists the defrag outcome for each file. A final sector map is lacking, but novices and system administrators alike will get a lot of mileage out of this defragger.