14 DAY TRIAL // Fragmentation is well known to be the primary source of computer low performance. Most users appeal to the built in defragmentation tool Microsoft provides in the Windows OS copy. Disk Defragmenter does a pretty good job if you do not move your documents back and forth on the drives. But there is one thing you need an external application for. And that is for defragmenting the pagefile of your system. I know that there are lots of softwares able to do this for you, but - as most of them are commercial versions - I thought that there would be a good idea to present you a freeware application.
The software comes from Sysinternals, which I guess needs no presentation as they have given users around the world dozens of free softwares designed to help them in their tasks. There is one little secret I want to tell you and it's about this company. They have recently been acquired by Microsoft and - to be more exact - the acquisition took place this year, on the 18th of July.
But let's get back to our business and I will begin by revealing the name of the software. PageDefrag is a freeware designed to defragment the pagefile of your system. There is a tricky thing with the pagefile as it has its advantages but also its disadvantages. The advantage is that the virtual memory can be implemented by writing pages to disk because the programs not always use all the parts of the code. So here comes this memory allocation technique to the rescue.
Some of the disadvantages are that sometimes the necessary amount of virtual memory may be lower then a page and the allocation will still be of one file, even if only a small part of it is used for the respective process. This inevitably results in internal fragmentation. Fortunately, the softwares on the market have come this far that they are able to defragment your virtual memory and reestablish the true performance of your computer.
There is not much to say about the software itself as it is a disk utility and its main purpose is to help you in keeping the machine in tip top condition. The interface is as simple as can be and there is nowhere to get lost as the application has only one window and the range of choices is pretty limited. The program makes available only three options out of which two are related to defragmentation. The third option allows the user to uninstall the software.
The defragmenting options are in fact related to scheduling the software when to proceed with the defragmentation. You can program it to perform a defragmentation at the next boot or to defragment the pagefile at every boot of Windows. PageDefrag also makes available an option designed to abort the defragmentation if you think that it takes too long. You can set the abort countdown timer between zero seconds up to thirty seconds. I think that should suffice for you to stop the application from doing its job and load up Windows.
A major advantage of the software is the fact that it show you the number of clusters your paging files consist of and the Registry hives (SAM, SYSTEM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, .DEFAULT). Next to the clusters display the user can actually see the level of fragmentation of the paging files and the Registry hives.
That's about all the software does for you. If you decide to give the application a shot and use it you will notice that immediately after CHDSK finishes examining the hard drives PageDefrag comes into the scene and begins its work. The blue screen (not the nasty crash one) will display the file name and the success of its defragmentation.
You must be aware of the fact that PageDefrag is not always successful at defragmenting the files due to some external reasons like the lack of space to perform the action or the existent free space is highly fragmented. In the first case, you will have to free some space on the disk while in the latter you should try a regular defragmenting tool. Windows Disk Defragmenter is suited for the job.
The developer recommends using Contig for defragmenting the free space on the drive, another free application. I have not tested it yet, but I can recommend some other excellent softwares, although some of them are not free: UltimateDefrag, Ashampoo Magical Defrag, Diskeeper Professional Edition and Power Defragmenter (freeware).
The Good
The software is easy to use and the options are not at all overwhelming.
The Bad
The links in the help menu should be updated.
The Truth
The application deserves the highest rating, as it has all there is needed: it is free, does its job very fast and - if you schedule it to perform the defragmentation at every boot - you will have some tidy pagefiles.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
