The more you use your computer, the more fragmented the file system on your hard disk becomes. In turn, this hampers your PC's performance, getting steadily worse over time.

Defragmentation software, such as Defrage 8.5 Professional from O &O, helps alleviate this problem.

Windows has a native defragmenter, but Defrag 8.5 Professional offers a wider feature set for more efficient and customisable defragging.

The user interface is clean and clear, so it’s easy to see how the defrag process is progressing. The One Button Defrag feature lets you set the defrag utility to run in the background. Full defrag sessions can also be scheduled from within the program.

The defrag process can be customised, allowing you to choose how the files are ordered on your hard disk. However, many of the options available are only really useful for server PCs and won't be of interest to home users.

Just as with the Windows defrag tool, external USB drives are also supported.

Activity Guard Pro is a setting that instructs Defrag to intelligently decide a limit to the amount of system resources to be used in the defrag process.

This ensures your PC won't grind to a halt whenever the defrag process leaps into action. You can manually set this limit if desired.

An optional O&O Defrag screensaver can be installed that will automatically start the defrag process on your hard drive whenever your PC is idle.

There's also the option to customise colour of the data blocks in the program’s graphic representation of the defrag process.

The reporting features of O&O Defrag don’t match up to the graphical eye candy of the screensaver or the process view, with tidy, image-free, html reports generated instead.

We feel most home users would be better off sticking with the native Windows defrag utility used in combination with the Windows scheduler. If you’re a power user who needs to know the health of your hard disks, you could consider a better-featured alternative.

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