In part 1 of this series we talked about CCleaner and how it can help you speed up your computer. In part 2 of this 3 part series we are going to look at another speed boosting program called Defraggler.
Defraggler is a free utility for computers running Microsoft Windows that lets you defrag hard drives on your system. While Windows comes with a defragmenting utility, Defraggler has several unique features that Windows Defragmenter and third-party defragmenting software can’t beat.
Defraggler is a quick, safe way to speed up your PC. Defraggler speeds up your computer by placing all the parts of a file on the same section of the hard drive. When Windows goes to access that file, it only has to look in one area of the drive, which speeds things up. Defraggler also attempts to move all of your files to the start of the hard drive, which makes them faster to access. Ok, let’s get started!
- Download Defraggler and install it onto your computer
- At the end of the installation, it will have a check box to run Defraggler. Leave it checked, tab to the finish button and press enter.
- The Defraggler main screen appears.
Analyze Your Drive
The first thing you should do is let Defraggler analyze your drive to calculate the defragmentation. The analyze button is used to calculate how bad your drive is defragmented, meaning, how bad files are scattered all over your hard drive. You can think of defragmented files like a library with books thrown all over the place or books placed in the wrong sections in the library. This is a defragmented library and takes a long time to find a book you are looking for in the library. When the librarian comes and puts all the books back in the proper place on the shelves, this helps people find the books more quickly. For example, perhaps she puts the book on lions back in the animal section in the library and removes it from the sports section. The librarian is the defrag operation that runs on your hard drive and places your books back in the proper place so Windows can more quickly locate them!
Ok, back to Defraggler… tab to the analyze button and press enter on it to let it calculate your defragmentation. As it runs, you will be on a stop button. When it is done, you will arrive back on the analyze button. This is how you will know that the analyze operation has completed.
Now press shift+tab twice to get to a list box. In it is the percentage that your drive is defragmented. The defragmentation percent is the last percent item read to you by your screen reader just before the words analysis complete. For example, my list view reads like this:
Local Disk C NTFS 74.5 GB 49.8 GB (67%) 24.7 GB (33%) 24% Analysis Complete
The statement that reads 24% analysis complete is how defragmented my drive is. Currently my drive is 24% fragmented. So I have quite a few books thrown all over my library! It is recommended to only perform a defrag on your drive if it is 20% fragmented or higher. If it is under 20% fragmented, there is no real need to run the tool since you will not notice any real gain in speed.
Running the Defrag Operation
Assuming your drive is 20% fragmented or higher, now tab to the defrag button and press enter to perform a standard defrag operation. A standard defrag operation can take several hours so please be patient. The librarian is slow but extremely effective! If your recycle bin has deleted files in it, you will get a message asking if you want to empty your recycle bin prior to the defrag operation starting. By clearing your recycle bin prior to Defraggler starting, it will remove files that otherwise Defraggler would have to work with. In turn, this will lesson the time it takes to defrag your hard drive. If you decide to answer no and not clear your recycle bin, this is fine, it will not hurt anything to say no and leave your recycle bin full of files. It will just take longer to defrag the drive. If your recycle bin is empty, the defrag process will automatically start and you will not be prompted with this recycle bin message.
Viewing Progress or Stopping the Defrag Operation
Once the defrag operation starts, you will be placed on a stop button. If you want to stop the defrag operation, press enter on it. If you want to pause the defrag operation, press shift+tab one time to the pause button and press enter. To resume defragging, press enter on the resume button.
If you want to see how far along Defraggler is with defragging your drive, while focused on the stop button, press shift+tab three times to arrive back at the drive list view and read it. The last item read to you tells you how far along Defraggler is in defragging your drive. My list view reads like this…
Local Disk C NTFS 74.5 GB 49.9 GB (67%) 24.6 GB (33%) 24% Defragmenting (0%)
The part that reads Defragmenting (0%) Is telling me that so far, Defraggler has fixed 0% of my fragmented files so I have a while to wait for Defraggler to finish. Maybe my librarian needs a new set of glasses? Likewise, if it read Defragmenting (80%) this would mean Defraggler is very close to completing the defrag operation.
Final Defrag Steps
The defrag operation completes when it reaches 100% and finalizes the operation. This finalization can take 5 minutes even though it says 100% complete. So, please be patient as you wait for the final operation to complete when 100% has been reached.
Testing Your Speed Gain
When Defraggler has completed, you should notice a speed gain on your computer. Specifically, when you open up a program on your computer… it should seem to open up faster. I will caution you though, the first few times you open up a program it will seem much faster, however, you get used to the speed so after a while it will seem like it really is not faster. However, it is, you just get used to the speed boost!
How Often To Defrag
It is recommended to analyze your drive once a month to see if it needs defragged. Again, if it is 20% defragmented or higher then run a defrag. Otherwise, there is no real need to run it since the speed boost will not be noticeable.
Running a Quick Defrag
A standard defrag operation can take several hours. If you want to perform a quick defrag, access the Action menu on the menu bar and down arrow to quick defrag drive and press enter. This will run much more quickly, however, it will not have as optimal a result as the standard defrag. Think of it this way, the librarian only arranges some of the books, not all of them.
Scheduleing a Defrag Operation
Since a standard defrag takes a while, you can schedule a defrag when you are in bed. To do this, access the settings menu on the menu bar and down arrow to the schedule… option and press enter. When the new screen appears tab to the “Schedule defragmentation for chosen volume” checkbox and check it. Set how often you want the defrag operation to happen. For example, once, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Then set the date and time the defrag operation should start. Finally tab to ok and press enter. Leave your computer on and when the date and time strikes, Defraggler will automatically start defragging your drive.
Checking for Updates
On the main screen, there is a check for updates button that you can press enter on. This will check for a new version of Defraggler and if available, the program will download it for you and install it.
Check back next week for part 3 of the series… your going to love it!
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Happy boosting!
Justin
Introduction
This is part 1 in a 3 part series on how to speed up your computer using accessible system utilities. There are many software packages out there to help you speed up your computer and increase the performance of it. However, many of them are not accessible so blind or visually impaired computer users cannot use them. In this first post, I discuss CCleaner.
What Is CCleaner
CCleaner is a free program that can clean unneeded files from various programs saving you hard disk space, remove unneeded entries in the Windows Registry, help you uninstall software and select which programs start with Windows. It works on all versions of Windows.
Here are instructions on how to use the utility:
- Download CCleaner and install it onto your computer.
- At the end of the installation, it will have a check box to run CCleaner. Uncheck it and do not run it from the installation screen. This is because there is an easier way to run the utility.
- Tab to the finish button and press enter on it to complete the installation.
- Minimize to your desktop
- Press the letter R until you arrive at recycle bin
- Press your application key
- Down arrow until you hear Run CCleaner and press enter
That’s all there is to it. CCleaner will run and remove all junk files off of your computer and clean up your registry. As it runs, a screen shows and will disappear after the cleaning is complete. This operation normally takes 1 minute or less to complete.
The default cleaning options chose by the program upon a new installation are normally all you need. However, if you want to adjust any of the cleaning options of CCleaner, follow these steps:
- Minimize to your desktop
- Press the letter R until you arrive at recycle bin
- Press your application key
- Down arrow until you hear Open CCleaner… and press enter on it
The CCleaner main screen appears and is accessible. You can tab through all options and press enter on the cleaner button, registry button, tools button, or options button. After pressing enter on a button, there is a tree view on the screen that populates and lets you select or deselect items to clean. You can tab to this tree view and then use your down and up arrow keys to move up and down the tree of items to clean. Press your space bar to select or deselect an item to clean.
There are many options you can experiment with so feel free to explore. There is also a check for updates button that will check for a newer version of CCleaner and if available, it will download it and install it for you. I recommend running CCleaner once a week.
If you know of any other accessible system utilities, please leave a comment below and share it with everyone.
Thanks and talk soon,
Justin
There are several screen readers available for the blind today. Some of them are commercial products, while others are free and open source such as NVDA for Windows and Orca for Linux. Although the free and open source screen readers offer blind computer users complimentary alternatives, they are primarily designed for home users. So then, who are the three screen reader companies who have developed screen readers to help blind and visually impaired persons sustain employment?
Those three companies are GWMicro which makes the Window Eyes screen reader for Windows, Dolphin Computer Access which makes the SuperNova screen reader for Windows, and Freedom Scientific which makes the Jaws for Windows screen reader for Windows. These brands of screen readers provide us the opportunity to work in a business as a blind or visually impaired individual.
Certainly each brand has strengths and weaknesses. In other words, things we love about them and things that flat out annoy us! Let’s look at some of the features that all of them share that can help us work within a business.
- Internet access either via Internet Explorer or firefox.
- Email via Microsoft Outlook, windows live mail, outlook express, etc.
- Chat via windows messenger, AIM, google talk, or a common chat application
- Remote desktop abilities for working from home
- All Microsoft Office applications
- Reading adobe pdf files
- Support for most versions of windows: 2000, xp, ME, Vista, 7
- Support for Braille display
- Supports 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows
These screen readers really do share most of the same core features for helping us sustain employment. So this brings me to my next thought. Which screen reader do you feel is the best on the market and why? What features of your screen reader makes it stand out above the rest? What are the features of your screen reader that you really appreciate that the competition does not have?
Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Thanks!
/Justin