Smart Defrag

Smart Defrag 3 hits all the notes you'd expect from a defragger, but it is too aggressive in terms of advertising. It throws recommendations for other programs at you at every turn. Still, it makes up for that pestering with performance that rivals most defrag programs for Windows.

This program tries to replace Windows' default defragmentation widget by being more advanced and offering more style, features, and customizations. We're not kidding about replacing, either -- the program will turn off your usual defragmenter and install other programs if you don't uncheck those options during install, so be careful. Once you have Smart Defrag 3 installed, you'll be very happy with its futuristic layout that offers some customization and a nice hard drive map that is a delight to read. It lets you set automatic and boot time defrags, as well -- but you might want to program those to happen when you're not using your computer, as the program took upwards of 30 minutes to defrag when we tested it. It was smart enough to recognize our SSD and not defrag it, though. The program has an "action center" that claims to recommend performance fixes, but they are all just recommendations for other programs made by the app's developers.

It's not as if those programs are bad, by any means, it's just a little obnoxious to see nonstop advertisements for other programs. Outside of that and somewhat slow performance, Smart Defrag 3 offers everything you'd want in a defragmenting program. It's a fine replacement for Windows' default and compares favorably to top programs like Defraggler.