Home Blog Podcast FAQs Reviews Showcase Windows Vista Xbox 360   Paul What I Use WinInfo

 

Windows Vista Feature Focus: Automatic Disk Defragmenter

 
 
Years ago, I wrote a review comparing various disk defragmenters. To my surprise, the Disk Defragmenter in Windows performed as well, or even a bit better than, the retail defragmenters that were available at the time. (Further complicating matters, Disk Defragmenter was made by Executive Software, now called Diskeeper, which of course sells its own commercial disk defragmenter product.)

Effectiveness aside, there has always been one crucial feature missing from the Windows Disk Defragmenter: It could never be configured to automatically defragment your system's hard drives. Instead, you would have to run the application or manually or learn how to use the Task Scheduler. In Windows Vista, that's all changed.

The Vista version of Disk Defragmenter includes two huge improvements over its predecessors. First, the application sports a vastly simplified user interface that does away with the colorful but pointless disk layout view, which you could literally watch as your hard disk was graphically defragged.

Second, Disk Defragmenter can be automatically scheduled to run. Indeed, it runs automatically, by default, at 4:00 am every Sunday morning. This is huge, because disk defragging is one of those mundane chores that most users really don't have time to perform. But it's something that should happen regularly in order to keep your system performing optimally.

The new Disk Defragmenter can be found at various points in the Windows Vista UI, but the most obvious is probably in the Start Menu: It can be found in All Programs, Accessories, System Tools.

Fun fact: Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented files on your hard disk so that the PC performs better. Because disk fragmentation occurs over time, it worsens with the passage of time. Automatic disk defrag is an absolutely essential feature in a modern operating system.

--Paul Thurrott
July 18, 2006
Updated February 22, 2007

 

More Information

This feature applies to the following Windows Vista product editions:

Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Basic N
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Business N
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Ultimate

Focus area:
System, Performance and Reliability


Windows Vista Feature Focus

The following Windows Vista Feature Focus showcases are currently available:

Feature Focus index
64-Bit (x64) Support
Automatic Disk Defragmenter
Live Taskbar Thumbnails
Reliability Monitor
User Account Control
Welcome Center
Windows Aero User Interface
Windows Anytime Upgrade
Windows Calendar
Windows DVD Maker
Windows Flip and Flip 3D
Windows Media Center Extender New!
Windows Movie Maker 6
Windows Photo Gallery
Windows Sidebar
Windows Vista Basic UI
Windows Vista Standard UI


Got Windows Vista?

Check out my Windows Vista Activity Center for a cool front-end to all of the Windows Vista/Longhorn-related content I've created!