Defragment Your Files and Drives with Defraggler (Windows)

A fragmented hard drive is a slow hard drive. If you want your system to run at peak performance, you should run a "defragger" from time to time. Defraggler is a free defragmentation utility that promises faster performance than Windows' own tool.

After installing the program, click the Analyze button. In a matter of seconds it shows you how many fragmented files you've got. From there you can click Defrag to put the software to work on your whole drive, or click the File List tab to see files and folders. The option to pick and choose individual items to defrag gives Defraggler a leg up on Windows' tool, which is an all-or-nothing solution.

What you can't do is run the program at scheduled times, like 5 p.m. on Fridays. A full-drive defragmentation can take hours, so you'll probably want to start the process when your workday's done. Defraggler is free for all versions of Windows; it comes from the same folks who brought you CCleaner and Recuva, two of our favorite freebies.

Thanks to reader spgillooly for this tip!