One reason of the degradation of performance in Windows is the file fragmentation. According to Wikipedia, fragmentation means:
In computer storage, fragmentation is a phenomenon in which storage space is used inefficiently, reducing storage capacity and in most cases performance. The term is also used to denote the wasted space itself.
So in order to minimize fragmentation and improve Windows performance, Windows needs to defragment the hard drive every now and then. Windows includes an built in tool to defragment the hard drive but it may not be very efficient and time consuming. There are many free Windows defragmentation tools which can complete the task more efficiently. Let’s discuss a few of them:
1- Ultra Defrag – Ultra Defrag is an open source defragmentation tool for Windows which takes very low resources and can be run from the command line. It is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. It can be run on startup in order to defragment locked system files.
2- Ultimate Defrag – It places the files and folders on adequate portions of hard drive in order to enhance the performance of frequently accessed files.
3- IOBit SmartDefrag – A more advanced software includes a scheduler so you can set it and forget it. It will keep on defragmenting the system after specified intervals of time.
4- Auslogics Disk Defrag – Auslogics Disk Defrag can defragment the whole hard drive automatically and has the option of pausing and resuming the defragmentation process. It’s available both as portable or installer.
5- FragExt – FragExt is a free tool and shell extension set which is used to defragment selective files. After installtion, just right click any file and select the defragment option to defragment that file only. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.
6- Defraggler – A tool by Piriform. It gives a visual analysis of the fragmentation level of each file. Like FragExt, Defraggler also support defragmentation of selective files or folders.
7- PageDefrag – A tool from Microsoft Sysinternals, PageDefrag is a tool that defragments the page file used by Windows and also the registry hives. It gives a list of files that need defragmentation.
8- Regdefrag – Regdefrag is a tool specifically for defragmentation of Windows Registry. Reduced size of Windows registry can make the system much faster.
Comments
One response to “8 Free Defragmentation Tools For Windows”
After checking out the features of the free options and commercial automatic defraggers, I decided to get one of the latter (though its not free!)Dont regret paying for this one as I needed something that would handle heavy frag levels with ease and be able to run it in the background. This program works almost silently without hogging system resources and also defrags under low free space.