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One of the remedies I often recommend for a sluggish system is to defrag the hard drive. For those unfamiliar with the term, defragging involves reorganizing your hard disk by placing files closer together so your operating system can find them more quickly. Your Windows operating system comes with a disk defrag utility of its own, but anyone who has ever used it knows it takes an unbearably long time to do the job. Fortunately there are excellent free defrag utilities you can download to make your system run better immediately.
An intuitive interface makes it easy for anyone to defrag a hard drive.
(Credit: CNET Networks)One of my most recommended free defrag apps is Auslogics Disk Defrag, but another program which was recently released might be even better. IOBit's Smart Defrag quickly analyzes your hard drive for fragments and sets to work piecing them back together. It can defrag several drives including partitions simultaneously. It can also optimize file locations and free space to get the best performance out of your hard drive, though this process takes a bit longer. The full scan time for my test machine's 75GB hard drive (without optimization) took just over 4 minutes. While Auslogics Disk Defrag runs in about the same amount of time, it's the added options of Smart Defrag that might make it your No. 1 defrag utility.
Hit the scheduling button to set up when you want Smart Defrag to do its dirty work.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Smart Defrag lets you set up a schedule for defragging your hard drive so you'll never forget to run it. You can set it up to defrag at a certain time every day, every week, every two weeks, or at any interval you want. You also can have it defrag your hard drive every time you log in to your system or even have it set to autodefrag when your computer is otherwise idle. While it remains active in your system tray (unlike Auslogics), the footprint is small and doesn't significantly interfere with other processes.
Enable autodefrag to make sure your computer is always running at peak performance.
(Credit: CNET Networks)One option, which seems small but has long been on my wish list for Auslogics Disk Defrag, is the ability to have Smart Defrag shut down my computer when it's finished. My favorite time to turn on a defrag utility on my home gaming machine is right before going to sleep, and with the autoshutdown feature, I don't have to worry about leaving my system running over night.
Smart Defrag is a free program, but the developer asks for donations if you like the software. My guess is, once you try it out, you might think a few bucks is worth your time for this excellent utility.
The Auslogics Registry Defragger looks good, but it's hard to tell if this or any Registry defragger or cleaner works. What's the challenge? Simple: It's not easy to gauge if these programs are effective because you'd need to benchmark your CPU against a range of programs before and after the Registry cleaning to properly test for any improvement, and that's an extremely time-intensive process.
Still, Auslogics is known for making effective Windows utilities, so perhaps we should give them the benefit of the doubt until more conclusive evidence is in. In any event, when you run the Registry Defragger, it spits out a report that you can review before proceeding with the potentially risky defrag process. The Registry optimization requires a reboot to defrag and compact the Registry.
This is a fairly serious program, and once you begin the analysis it won't let you move the mouse outside the program window. It also "strongly recommends" that users close all other programs while it runs, although this is a standard warning for Registry-cleaning apps. In our tests, benchmark improvements never materialized, but it's not impossible that there's something going on that we're missing. Recommended, but with a grain or four of salt.
If you're already familiar with the excellent Auslogics Disk Defrag, a freeware application that logically rearranges file data and free space, you might be intrigued by Auslogics BoostSpeed. The all-in-one optimizing suite groups together an uninstaller, startup manager, file shredder, and more than 10 other tools to coax your operating system to top performance. Get a tour of BoostSpeed's easy quick-launching interface in the First Look video above and find out why it's an editor favorite.
For fans of Auslogics Disk Defrag--and who isn't?--Auslogics offers up BoostSpeed, a utility suite that'll set you back 30 clams in your quest for a computer that runs like a cheetah.
BoostSpeed rounds up all the Auslogics utilities under one roof.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Disk Defrag is a massively popular piece of freeware, and with good reason. It runs faster and provides more information both during the defrag process and afterwards than the native Windows defragger, and it's free. Effective and providing an essential function, there's no question that your computer runs better for it.
BoostSpeed, while effective, isn't necessarily what every user needs. It bundles Disk Defrag with all the other Auslogics utilities. These include a Registry cleaner, an uninstall manager, a startup manager for boot cycle customizations, RAM and browser optimizers, file shredder, DirectX diagnostic, Windows tweak manager, and several mini apps to manage Windows settings. It also comes with a rescue center that can back up any settings before you change them. No doubt, BoostSpeed gives you your money's worth, at least in terms of services provided. Upgrading also only costs $10, for those who own older versions.
Are they all worth paying for? That depends on what kind of user you are. Most if not all of these features are available as freeware from one vendor or another, and generally one in each category is top-notch or nearly so. Some of the lesser tools, like the tweaks manager and the security feature, didn't live up to my expectations. Tweaks focused on basic functions and wouldn't serve as a replacement for TweakUI, while the security feature merely let me know that I had up-to-date security apps installed. Still, the convenience of having all these tools located under one umbrella is hard to argue with, and even the tools that didn't impress did their jobs free of hitches.
Scan speeds for the other features included here are comparable with those in Disk Defrag. Users also get the convenience of optionally setting the program to run at startup and live in the system tray, making most of the program's functionality no more than a context-menu click away.
The most useful tools are the Disk Defrag, the RAM optimizer, the Registry Optimizer--if you believe that "optimizing" the Registry is more than snake oil--the file shredder, and the performance monitor. The 15-day trial comes unfettered, allowing you to thoroughly judge if BoostSpeed is a program you need.
Hopefully, there aren't too many Windows users left who don't have Auslogics Disk Defrag. In case you don't, though, this is an excellent time to stop using the slow, native Microsoft defragger and upgrade--for free!--to an app that works better and faster: Auslogics Disk Defrag.
Even on older Windows XP systems, the program runs reasonably fast. Chose a hard drive from the drop-down menu to get a read on its stats such as free and used space and get a visual comparison in a pie chart. One click starts the defragging, and along with a visual table representing the various bits and bytes that are being shunted around, you also get a running ticker of the file currently being defragged. Disk Defragger spits out a bar graph and an HTML report at the end, lacking only a final sector map.
Auslogics, publisher of the popular Auslogics Disk Defrag, also makes another defragger: Registry Defrag. Does it actually work? Is it all smoke and mirrors, or does using this free program result in faster clock times?
... Read more
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No matter what kind of computer you're running--a brand new dual-core Alienware model or your aunt's old Dell laptop--it's hard to gauge the performance of your machine by factory specs alone. Especially with all the versions of Windows PCs out there using any number of hardware configurations; it's tough to really know how your computer measures up to today's fastest systems.
Finding complete system specs is especially important to gamers of course, but they're not alone in their need for system speed. Today's release of the graphics-intensive specs for Crytek's Crysis (from Crave, CNET's gadget blog) surely has many gamers praying their computers have what it takes to really bring the long-awaited game to life. But even if you're not a gamer, you might want to know, for example, whether your computer can handle the latest image- or video-editing software. Fortunately, you can find out in advance using a good benchmarking app. This category of software runs several diagnostic tests which check everything from processor speed and drive efficiency to the output of your graphics and sound cards.... Read more
A sluggish computer can mean a lot of things--it could be malware, or overstuffed memory, or even disorganized disk space. If you haven't defragmented your drive lately, try the free Auslogics Disk Defrag as a first attempt to speed up your PC.
First Look videos (collect them all) are a great way to get familiar with programs like Auslogics Disk Defrag before you install them. Check it out below, and pick up an easily remembered analogy for how defragmenting works.
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CNET Networks)
Though we have several machines here at Download.com running Windows Vista for testing purposes, I have to admit that I haven't yet made the switch at my workspace. Maybe it's because with Windows XP, I like the way things are set up; I like the look; and I can rest assured that all my favorite downloads are going to work without fail. I'm not saying Vista won't support my programs--and I'm sure I'll make the switch at some point--but for now I'm sticking with XP.
Even though XP is my choice for now, as a major-league software nerd, I still try to find ways to improve upon a good thing. Rather than leaving well-enough alone, I continually search CNET Downloads to see what programs I can find to make my OS run even more smoothly. A few downloads I've come across trim down existing applications, clean out system flaws, and keep the whole XP operating system running at optimal speed.... Read more
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I admit I'm a digital pack rat. I have a directory of images on my local drive devoted to LOLcats. I have gigabytes of FLAC files from live concert recordings and MP3 files from music sites such as CNET Download.com Music.
I'm good at regularly backing up my information to DVD and moving some files permanently to backups, but my 160GB hard drive is usually pushing full capacity. To keep my machine running at a speed I like (and deserve!), I have to perform regular maintenance. While there are lots of ways to optimize your hard drive, my basic method requires only three steps. ... Read more
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