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Diskeeper Lite Tidies Files (Manually)

Free version offers speed but lacks automation of other versions of file-management utility.

Lincoln Spector, special to PCWorld.com

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Executive Software has released a new version of its free Diskeeper Lite defragger, after a long wait--the previous version of Diskeeper Lite worked only on Windows NT.

Based on the commercial Diskeeper 7.0, the new Lite runs on Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP. It is available from Executive Software and can be downloaded free of charge.

Cleaning House

Diskeeper is one of several utilities intended to keep your PC humming by repairing fragmented files. As you use your computer, files become fragmented on the drive, and bits become scattered physically over the disks. Too much fragmentation makes a drive unreliable, and can possibly slow it down. A defragger brings the files together again.

Diskeeper Lite lacks the automation capabilities that are the primary selling point of Executive Software's commercial products. As with Windows' own bundled defragger utility, you run Diskeeper Lite by launching it and telling it to do its job.

The Lite version "educates people about the limitations of manual defragmenters," says John Kimmich, product manager, which might sound like a strange job for a manual defragger.

Choice of Freebies

So why bother to download a program, even a free one, when Windows comes with its own manual defragger? According to Executive Software, Diskeeper is faster and more thorough than Windows' defragger. Test results from the National Software Testing Lab (commissioned by Executive Software) appear to support the point. Diskeeper Lite is based on the same technology and, according to Executive Software, will perform as well.

Will it improve your system's performance? According to NSTL's tests, defragging boosts your PC's speed, and Diskeeper pushes it more than the Windows defragger. On the other hand, tests performed by the PC World Test Center could find no significant performance improvements from defragging in general, although Diskeeper was not among the programs tested.

Executive is giving away Diskeeper Lite in hopes you'll buy one of the commercial versions, which are priced starting at $30. With these, you don't have to remember to defrag your drive--it happens automatically. You can schedule scans to happen at set times (this is also possible with Windows' defragger, but the limitations are greater and it's not obvious how to do it). Or, you can let Diskeeper track fragmentation while you work and determine when a defrag is due.

Although Executive Software sells home editions of Diskeeper, the program is primarily aimed at the corporate market. The enterprise versions of the program let a system administrator schedule operations through the network so users don't even know their hard drives are being regularly defragged.

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