xDefrag

Defragmentation, or "defragging" or "defrag," is the process of reorganizing data stored on a hard drive.

Even though most people don't even bother performing this particular task on their computers, disk or data fragmentation can have serious effects on one's computer.

These include performance degradation, slow boot-up times, inefficient disk caching, potential system crashes, and so forth.

If you don't feel like relying on Microsoft's built-in Defragmentation tool for Windows, then you can check out xDefrag that can do the job just as well.

As expected, with the help of xDefrag you can perform defragmentation and optimization operations on all your computer's HDDs or SSDs.

However, the app is also quite useful in the sense that it allows you to select specific folders for data defragmentation.

The GUI is as simple as they get: a drive selection menu in the upper left corner of the main window, free and used-space indicators, a useful progression bar, and a few basic settings in the lower part.

In terms of features, you can choose between two levels of optimization: Normal and Maximum. You can also limit the maximum file size for defragmentation, integrate xDefrag in the OS context menu, as well as tell the app to shut down the PC after the operation is completed.

It may not be the most professional tool for this particular job out there, however, xDefrag is a free tool that works great, and not only that, its simplicity ensures that literally anyone can use it straight from the get-go.

It works on any version of Windows upwards of Windows 7, it comes for both x86 and x64 architectures, and it even has a portable version as well.