It is a Sysinternals utility. Microsoft bought out Sysinternals last year but so far the great free utilities are still available.
:SMLR
Soya,
did I say something wrong? I didn’t want anyone to advertise commercial products. I first skimmed the page for information about defragmenting as was your intention when providing the link. While reading I came across some other interesting statements and programmes. So once again for that very informative link.
Even though this might be a little off-topic I’d like to ask you another question (which, I know, has been greatly discussed in Comodo forums as well as on many sites). So it’s just about opinions:
The author of that site asserts that the safety, superior performance etc. of FF over IE is a myth.
I - for one - totally disagree. However, the author provides some “proof” which sometimes seems to be based on, eerm, something “fact-ish”. Not being an expert, how can I know if there are more security issues with FF than with IE. I have to rely on “experts’” testing an the results they come up with.
This is just out of interest. I have NO INTENTION to discard FF. I’ve been using it for many years now (with the occasional Opera) and have not once (knock on wood) had any problems with malware on my computer (at least Hijackthis, Jotti, etc. tell me that).
Thanks again for all your great help and suggestions.
You people rock !!!
Cheers,
grampa. (R)
I’ll sneak in before Soya does 
The author of this page is well know on a number of forums, as this document, in various forms, has been posted ad nauseam. In most cases the arguements for and against, just go round and round.
At the end of the day, it’s possible to make any browser look either, good or bad.
Firefox isn’t perfect by any means, but consider this:
firefox 2
IE 7
Opera 9
Lets face it, it took Microsoft four years to upgrade IE significantly, and yet it still uses the same rendering engine. It won’t be until IE 8, that we see a new core. That won’t be here for another two years!
My personal opinion is simply this, you like what you like. Remember all browsers have short-comings. Make sure the browser is updated regularly, and of course, take sensible precautions when surfing.
Toggie
No. I just wanted to clarify that I linked that site with no intentions of introducing any specific product over another. I would’ve linked to the exact spot where I wanted to show the small info on the Windows defrag (to address your problem with Safe Mode and cpu intensity), but there are no specific areas (usually with the # symbol on websites) that I could find. It wouldn’t be a suprise if the author is biased on certain views, such as how only commercial defraggers can beat the Windows Defragmenter (look at the left margin; there are Diskeeper ads on his site 88)). So I apologize for any misunderstanding this may have originated.
Now as for the FF vs other browsers, as Toggie posted, there are pros and cons to every product. Stick with what you’re comfortable with. Actually, this was one of the sites that started my quest to search for an IE alternative due to it being risky (with my own experience as well as reports on the net), which eventually lead me to Opera. Of course, this wasn’t the only site I based my research on. (It took me a long while to think). Again, this is just my personal experience.
I’m not an expert by any stretch and also usually depend on a lot sources prior to making a decision on what to install (or not). No matter how well a site presents its info, there are bound to be others that contradict it. Always best to see all sides of the story.
Thanks a lot, I was thinking the exact same thing. However, if one has the oppertunity to ask people who know what they’re talking about (even if they have to do a lot of research first ;D) then one should jump at it - my opinion.
And I certainly learn a lot by asking many, many (sometimes) banal questions.
Thanks for guiding my steps on the rocky path to getting to know computers.
Cheers,
grampa.
By all means! Questions are what drive conversations, and ultimately make the world revolve ;D.
Hey,
I downloaded and used PowerDefragmenterGUI and used it in “normal mode” (or whatever it was called) and everything was fine. However, later I thought I’d try the “power mode” (or whatever… the 4th option) and after reboot a kernel file was missing and Windows wouldn’t start. Any experiences / suggestions on what the problem might have been??? (XP Home SP2, NTFS)
Cheers,
grampa.
Just to clarify soya, the main benefit from defragging is that it reduces the amount of travel distance with the hard drive to access one file (Depending on the file, as to how much the hard drive needs to retrieve it). Having a fast CPU will make literary no difference to the speed deduction done by a fragmented hard drive. If you have more then one hard drive or a really fast seek time hard drive, this will decrease the need for defraging a hard drive.
If a system file is scattered all over the place, this makes a MASSIVE difference to the speed of the computer as the amount of times needed to access the file can be very significant.
Rotty, not sure I really understood you last post.
with NTFS, even with small clusters, the OS will not always write data to the next cluster, from which it is read. It’s a feature 
Even with a really fas SATA disk, it still helps to defrag, occasionally.
I mean that if a file is scattered over a hard disk, what takes the time is the seek time to get to each bit of that file. The processor is not the bottleneck… If the file is needed many times per second then the seek time will be noticeable.
Hey,
I have an ASUS Pro60v notebook (Intel Centrino 1.60GHz, 512MB Ram, 80GB HDD, XP Home SP2) the HD of which I converted from Fat32 to NTFS (4kb clusters) using Partition Manager. I only defrag (using Windows defrag after some bad experiences with other progs - see above) when Windows advises me to do so.
Rotty, not being an expert - far from it to tell you the truth - I had difficulties understanding your post(s). Can it speed up my notebook to defrag occasionnally, or not?
Thanks for your ongoing support and all your help and guidance in my process of learning.
Cheers,
grampa.
If a file that belongs to your anti virus product, firewall or Operating system is fragmented then yes it can slow the computer down (These are real-time programs). If the file belongs to say Firefox then it only slows the startup and sometimes running of Firefox.
Someone help me explain this please (-:
No need to. I understood. 
Very well explained. :BNC
Forgive my being a little slow when it comes to understanding. :-\
Thanks for all your help. I’ve learned a lot from you guys.
(B)
Cheers,
grampa.
I know what you mean, Rotty. However, I think I’ve defragged too many times several months ago that my haddrive (I think. Either that or the fan.) became noisy upon each boot. Coupled with the fact that I’ve experienced no real performance difference either way, so I stopped. Not necessarily no performance difference, but to my eyes I don’t really see it.
I suggest to only defrag after installing a windows service pack or installing the OS or any other major updates (.net framework). Also it helps if you install a firewall, anti virus product etc.
No problem, i am not too good sometimes at explaining things (-: .
Absolutely. The question of whether to defrag and how often is never ending. I have personally found a difference in the file access time after a defrag, it lacks the lag that a fragmented drive shows and other system hurdles are minimized with regular HDD maintenance. Until recently ( switched to Diskeeper for the advanced automatic features) i used the built in defragmenter.
The Win Defrag is the slowest. Unsure, but safe mode might be even slower.
That is exactly what I experience. So I think you’re right.
Thanks again for widening my horizon.
Cheers,
grampa.
Regardless, it doesn’t make us type any quicker.