Defrag pagefile and registry in Windows XP
Posted on October 4, 2008 at 5:23 am
If you’re run the default Defragmenter program in Windows recently, you may have not realized that the program cannot defrag any file that is currently open, which includes all system files, the Windows page file, and the Windows registry.
However, if you truly want to optimize the speed and performance of your computer, defragging those three aspects of the operating system are the most important! If you think about it, the system files, the page file and the registry are constantly being accessed by Windows in order to complete any task.
So if Windows does not allow you to defrag these areas, then how do you go about doing it? Well, Microsoft has a free product called PageDefrag that will defrag your computer during the system boot up so as to avoid any files being locked up by Windows.
The program will even defrag your event logs! The list shows how fragmented the paging file is and all of the various registry hives (SAM, Software, System, etc).
Choose Defragment at next boot and then restart your computer. First CHKDSK will make sure there are no errors on your hard drive and then the defragment process will begin.
Overall, the program is very useful for increasing the smoothness and speed of your computer. I would recommended only running it once every month or two, not on every boot. Too much defragmenting can actually cause more problems.
There are also other freeware applications that do a great job of defragmenting your hard drive, such as SmartDefrag, a tool that lets you defrag multiple drives at once. Enjoy!
» Filed Under Free Software Downloads
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There should be no need to do this after the initial use. The pagefile is not like other files and does not normally grow and shrink to fit the data it contains. If the initial size is sufficient then no fragmentation will occur. If warnings occur then the initial size should be increased. If this is done then a further run of Pagedefrag will be necessary. Be sure to do a normal defrag first as Pagedefrag cannot work properly on a fragmented drive.
Larry Miller
Microsoft MCSA