PCTips Box

1. Open the command prompt with administrative privileges by clicking the Start orb, All Programs, Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.

2. Type defrag c: -b (assuming you want to defragment files on your C: drive) and then press Enter on your keyboard. You could also type defrag –b to defrag boot and application files on all hard drives.

3. You won’t see any output in the command prompt during the defrag process.

4. When it’s finished defragmenting a new line will appear in the command prompt. (more…)

The Microsoft acquisition Sysinternals that is famous for their useful Windows utilities has a new site up that allows you to easily access any of their utilities for free over the internet in your command prompt. This allows you to run any of their utilities without first downloading it to your computer. Just open an administrative level command prompt and type in:

\\live.sysinternals.com\tools\toolname.exe

For example if you want to run Autoruns (a great program to see what starts up automatically) type \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\autoruns.exe and hit Enter.

Every Sysinternals utility is available for “live” use. (more…)

Even though Microsoft has promised to drop the prices associated with some of the retail standalone versions of Windows Vista (specifically the Home Premium and Ultimate editions), the fact of the matter is that the SKUs of the latest Windows client will still be far from cheap. In this context, you have to take advantage as best you can of the ecosystem of software solutions built around the operating system. And there are plenty of free offerings that are worth a whole lot more than what you didn’t pay for them. The Sysinternals brand dates back to 1996, and was associated with the Windows operating system from the get-go. The brainchild of developers Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell Sysinternals has become synonymous with a collection of advanced system utilities. (more…)

The Windows Vista Disk Defragmenter has been improved over the Windows XP version, but you can’t see or use all the best features unless you run it from the command line. By default the defrag tool only defragments files smaller than 64 MB, because according to Microsoft’s benchmarks, fragments of this size, which already consist of at least 16000 contiguous clusters, have a negligible impact on performance. If you still want to defrag files larger than 64 MB too, you need to use the -w switch mentioned below to defragment files of all size.

Disk Defragmenter does not defragment files in the Recycle Bin, or files which are in use. Disk Defragmenter will not degragment Bootsect dos, Safeboot fs, Safeboot csv, Safeboot rsv, Hiberfil sys, Memory dmp, or the Windows page file. Using the -b parameter will optimize these boot files. (more…)

No one ever bought a car or a computer because it could go slower. If your hard-disk drive seems to take forever to go about its business, or if it’s having trouble keeping up with your CD-R burning software, chances are it’s time for a tune-up and defragmentation.

Step 1: Close any open applications. Disable antivirus utilities, screen savers and other background programs. Make sure you’ve quit all programs in Windows by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete once (don’t press it twice or you’ll restart the computer).

Step 2: Windows will show you a list of applications running. Highlight each application (one at a time) and click on End Task to close each one. (more…)

Instead of using the standard Windows Vista Defrag Tool, use the combination of Contig and PowerDefragmenter to make the process ten times faster.

Steps:

1. Download Contig here.

2. Download PowerDefragmenter here.

3. Save both files in the same directory.

4. Run PowerDefragmenter and click next. (more…)

This procedure should work on all Windows OS but we tested her on Windows XP. Now to optimize you Hard-Disk fallow next steps:

1. Run Notepad and open file System.ini which can be found in Windows directory,
2. When you opened this file under [boot] section change shell=explorer.exe into shell=defrag.exe,
3. Restart you computer, (more…)

By default Windows Vista will automatically defrag your hard drive (defrag: reorder files on the physical hard disk and not to make them easily accessible / re-organising your file cabinets).

The default is that Vista itself schedules the best time for this to do, while this could decrease real-time performance it might be better if you choose when to defrag yourself. An easy way to disable this scheduled defragmentation is as follows. (more…)

Instead of using the standard Windows Vista Defrag Tool, use the combination of Contig and PowerDefragmenter to make the process ten times faster.

Steps:

1. Download Contig here.
(more…)

As you know over time the Windows filing system can become disorganised and this will eventually lead to a slow down and a reduction in performance. Defragging the hard drive can restore order but most of us forget to do it regularly and leave it until the system has started to slow down. Here is a way to program Windows to automatically Defrag your drives once a month or every few weeks. (more…)