Arrested Development - Ex-Pats Mexico

I just posted this on another board, and I thought I would post it here too.

For anyone that likes to keep their PC computer tuned up, you might want to try this disk defragmentation program.

I downloaded the Auslogistics disk defragmenter.  It is freeware.  The disk defragmenter in Vista is terrible, It is slow as hell, taking almost two hours to complete, and there is no progress bar at all.  It is so slow that I minimize it to the taskbar so I can do other things instead of staring at it for hours.  The only way to tell if it has finished, it to maximize it from the taskbar once in a while and if it says defragmenting, it isn't done, when it says your disk will be defragged on the schedule you have set, it is finished.  
 
You might want to try this one from PC Pitstop: http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag  It will work in Vista, XP, etc.  It is much faster than the defragger in XP, it took a little less than 3 minutes to finish defragmenting the 250 GB hard drive in my new Vista laptop, and usually 1 minute for the 80 GB hard drive in my XP laptop, the Microsoft defragger usually takes between 15 and 30 minutes in my XP laptop. 

Auslogistics does have a progress display showing the percentage completed.  I had run the Vista defragmenter already on my newest laptop, and after I installed and ran the Auslogistics defragmenter for the first time a few hours later, it found and corrected 121 fragments that Microsoft had missed.  The Vista computer is noticeably faster now, not much, but noticeable. 

A small box pops up when a scan is finished, it lists the number of fragments found, etc. It is so fast that I usually run it 2 or 3 times consecutively. The second scan will usually show a very few fragments that were missed on the first defragmentation scan. If I run it a third time, there has always been zero fragments left. The second or third scan, if I run them, are usually completed in less than one minute, just about 30 seconds usually.

Rex

papirex, I used Auslogistics defrag and registry cleaner before and I can't remember why I stopped. I did start using Advanced SystemCare by IObit and it's free also. The IObit defrag has 3 levels of defrag. I use the deep defrag. It takes a little longer but on my laptop I have a small 40Gig drive and the deep defrag makes it run faster.

I downloaded the Auslogistic programs and will try them again. Thanks for reminding me.

You might want to look at IObit because it includes defrag, registry cleaner, security checker, file checker and about 20 other programs and features. http://www.iobit.com/

Thanks Pamela, I just downloaded it and ran it for the first time. It seems to be very efficient and it is not too slow. I will try it out for a while, it is supposed to run in the background, so it should be a no brainer to use. I expect it will be an improvement.

I had to buy a new laptop in California last February, and of course the only OS available in a PC in a computer store was Vista. It is a lazy dog and a disaster, slower than molasses on a cold day. Except for the frequent freeze ups, Windows 95 or 98 would be a giant leap forward compared to Vista.

When I fist got it, it took about ten minutes for it to start up or shut down, and one or two minutes for any web page to open. For the past six months, I have been tweaking it, deleting all the preloaded crapware and trial versions of software, anti-virus programs, etc. that I know I will never use, plus adding some programs to keep it cleaned up.

It now starts and shuts down in about three minutes, and web pages open and close instantly. It is starting to resemble a real computer. I did pre-order an upgrade disk for the Windows 7 operating system, but it won't be delivered until December 7th. The developers of Vista have deleted, moved, and re-named so many things that it is still a clumsy system if a person likes to be in charge of their own computer instead of having the computer in charge.

On start up, my Vista computer with 2 Gigs of RAM is using 45 or 50% of the RAM when it is not doing any work at all. With 2 Gigs of RAM, that means it is using almost 1 Gig of RAM just to run the OS. If W 7 does not improve things a lot, I will need to upgrade the amount of RAM I have in this computer. My XP laptop does just fine with 1 Gig of RAM.

I have some instructions for “downgrading” an OS from Vista to XP and it is not easy. It involves making changes to the registry and I believe to the BIOS too. Buying a pre-release version of Windows 7 is the easiest answer I think.

Thanks for the link.

Rex

In this family 4 out of 5 of us managed to get from win 98 2nd edition to XP sp2, and hope to get from XP sp3 to win 7 without getting Vista.

One son had to get a Vista laptop, but changed the OS to XP within a week.

I have been running Vista for a little over a year now and have not had any problems. I could see where there might be if it's installed on a older computer or with small amount of memory.

I got a computer with Vista about 2 years ago and sent it back. I like XP much better. I don't suggest anyone use XP SP3. You can download it for free from several sites but you only need SP3 for certain applications. http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/wi ... ack-3.html

Windows scatters files all over the disk and that's why you need to clean the registry all the time and run defrag. Windows doesn't file data on the drive like other OS.

papirex, if you aren't cleaning the registry, I suggest you do. I downloaded the free Auslogistics registry cleaner and it found over a thousand errors that my other registry cleaners didn't. I like Reg soft free registry repair: http://www.regsofts.com/free_registry_r ... repair.htm and the IObit and I will be using the Auslogistics. Be careful of some of the others because they can take out needed files.

As of the end of July 2009, Windows Vista (with approximately 360 million internet users) is the second most widely used operating system on the internet with an approx. 21% market share [b], the most widely used being Windows XP with an approx. 70% market share.[/b]

Dell is to once again offer Windows XP on new systems, responding to online customer complaints. The decision reverses a Vista-only policy the PC seller has moved to since the release of Microsoft's latest OS. The move is a reaction to online complaints at Dell's recently-launched Ideastorm website.

There were 2 wins OS between 98 2nd and XP, that were not an improvment.

Did you ever try Windows ME. That was a joke.

We were advised not to.
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2 years ago in Canada all new laptops came with Vista ONLY.

That was the problem.

I think that was true everywhere and that's why I kept my old computer instead of upgrading. If it takes me an hour to figure out how to use an OS, then I don't need to use it. The purpose of PCs was for every executive to have one on his desk and for that to happen they had to be easy to operate. Bill Gates used to know that. Gates screwed up with OSs that are too complicated. MS hired too many IBM programmers who are writing OS for IT people not regular people and it hasn't been working for MS.