Do You Really Need to Defrag Your PC?

Ask any PC tech person how to make your computer faster, and almost every one of them will tell you to defrag your PC. But do you really need to manually trigger a defrag these days?

The quick answer: You don’t need to manually defragment a modern operating system. The longer answer: let’s go through a couple scenarios and explain so you can understand why you probably don’t need to defrag.

If You’re Using Windows with an SSD Drive

If you’re using an SSD (Solid State Drive) in your computer, you should not be defragmenting the drive to avoid excessive wear and tear—in fact, Windows 7 or 8 is smart enough to disable defrag for SSD drives. Here’s what Microsoft’s engineering team has to say on the subject:

Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation on SSD system drives. Because SSDs perform extremely well on random read operations, defragmenting files isn’t helpful enough to warrant the added disk writing defragmentation produces…

….the automatic scheduling of defragmentation will exclude partitions on devices that declare themselves as SSDs.

If you’re running Windows Vista, you should make sure to disable the automatic defrag and question your operating system choices, and if you’re using Windows XP with an SSD, one has to wonder why you’d have such an expensive solid state drive running with an ancient and unsupported operating system when you could switch to Linux instead.

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If You’re Running Windows 7 or 8.x

If you’re using either Windows 7, 8, or even Vista, your system is already configured to run defrag on a regular basis—generally 1 AM every Wednesday. You can check for yourself by opening up Disk Defragmenter and seeing the schedule there, as well as the last run and fragmentation levels.

For instance, in the screenshot below, you’ll see that the last time it ran just a few days ago, and there was zero percent fragmentation. Clearly the schedule is working just fine.

The one exception to this rule is if you turn your PC off every time after using it—essentially, if you never let the PC sit idle at all, the defrag task will never get a chance to run. This is probably not the case, but if you check and your drive hasn’t been defragged in a while, you might have to start doing it manually.

Windows XP

Sadly there’s no automatic defragmenter in Windows XP, which isn’t surprising since it’s 10 years old. This also means that you are going to need to either manually defragment the drive on a regular basis. How regular? Well, that depends on how much data you’re creating, downloading, writing, and deleting. If you’re a heavy user, you need to run it once a week. Light user, maybe once a month.

Luckily there’s a much better option—you can quickly and easily setup an automatic defrag in Windows XP using task scheduler. It’s pretty simple, and you can configure it to run whenever you want.

Do Third-Party Defrag Utilities Really Matter?

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It’s impossible to write an article about defrag and not at least mention third-party defrag utilities—but unfortunately we don’t have solid benchmarks to prove that they improve performance better than the default defrag built into Windows. Our general, non-scientific testing has shown that commercial defrag utilities definitely accomplish the task a little better, adding features like boot-time defrag and boot speed optimization that the built-in defrag doesn’t have. They can generally defrag system files a little better, and they usually include tools for defragging the registry as well.

But here’s what they won’t tell you: Over the years, as hard drives have gotten much faster at both sequential and random reads and writes, the usefulness of defrag has dropped a bit. Your hard drive 10 years ago only had to be partially fragmented to cause system slowdown, but these days, it’ll require a very fragmented drive to make that happen. Another factor are the giant hard drives in modern computers, which have enough free space that Windows doesn’t have to fragment your files in order to write them to the drive.

If you’re looking to eek every last drop of performance out of your spinning hard drive, a third-party defrag utility is probably what you need… or you could put that cash towards a new SSD, which would massively increase performance.

Wrapping Up

Didn’t feel like reading the whole article? Skipped down to here for some unknown reason? Here’s the quick version:

• (Fastest) Windows with an SSD Drive: Don’t Defrag.
• Windows 7, 8, or Vista: It’s automatic, don’t bother. (check to make sure the schedule is running)
• Windows XP: You should upgrade. Also, you should setup defrag on a schedule.

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Bottom line: Upgrade to an SSD and your PC will be fast enough to leave defrag where it belongs: a distant memory.

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How to Add Any Application to the Windows Desktop Right-Click Menu

If you want really quick access to launch a frequently used application without putting extra icons on your desktop, you can add that application to the context menu for the desktop with a simple registry hack. Here’s how to do it.

Naturally, we’ve also covered the opposite scenario—how to clean up your messy Windows context menu, which is an equally useful read if you’ve got a bunch of items you want to remove from the menu.

This technique should work in Windows 7, 8, or Vista. We don’t have an XP computer to test it on, but we’re guessing it doesn’t work there.

Adding Applications to the Desktop Context Menu

For today’s lesson we’ll show you how to add Notepad to the menu, but you could add any applications you want instead. The first thing you’ll want to do is open up regedit.exe through the Start Menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

The screen should look similar to this one if you are in the right place.

Next, you’ll want to create a new key underneath the shell key, the name of which is exactly what is going to show up on the desktop menu. Right-click on the “shell” key, and then choose New \ Key from the menu.

Give the new key the name that you want to show up on the desktop context menu. For this example we’ll be using Notepad.

Optional: If you want to assign an “Alt” key to this menu entry for quicker access, you can change the (Default) value on the right and put an & character in front of the key you want to use. For instance, if you wanted to be able to just use the N key to launch Notepad once the desktop context menu pops up, you can do this:

Personally I don’t find this terribly useful since you have to use the mouse to right-click on the desktop… may as well just use the mouse to click the item. Still, for completeness I’ve included it.

Next you’ll need to create the command key that will actually hold the command used to launch the application. Right-click on the new Notepad key, and then choose New \ Key from the menu.

Give this key the name “command” in lowercase.

To complete this step you’ll need the full path to the application that you want to launch. You can use Shift + Right-Click to get the Copy as Path menu item to find this more quickly. Note: of course, for Notepad you wouldn’t need the full path, but this is just an example.

Now click on “command” on the left side, and then double-click on the (Default) key in the right side to edit the string value.

Paste in the full path to the executable that you got from the “Copy as Path” step above, or you can put in the full path yourself if you’d like.

Once it’s done, it should look like this:

And right-clicking on the desktop will produce the new menu item… naturally, using this menu item should launch Notepad.

You can add as many applications to the desktop context menu as you’d like, just repeat the steps again with a new menu item name.

How To Personalize the Windows Command Prompt

Command line interfaces can be downright boring and always seem to miss out on the fresh coats of paint liberally applied to the rest of Windows.  Here’s how to add a splash of color to Command Prompt and make it unique.

By default, Windows Command Prompt is white text on a black background. It gets the job done, but maybe you want to add some color to it.

To get an overview of what we can do with the color command, let’s enter:

color /?

To get the color you want, enter color, then the option for the background color followed by the font color.  For example, let’s make an old-fashioned green on black look by entering:

color 02

There are a bunch of different combinations you can do, like this black background with red text.

color 04

You can’t mess it up too much.  The color command won’t let you set both the font and the background to the same color, which would make it unreadable.  Also, if you want to get back to the default settings, just enter:

color

Now we’re back to plain-old black and white.

Personalize Command Prompt Without Commands

If you’d prefer to change the color without entering commands, just click on the Command Prompt icon in the top left corner of the window and select Properties.

Select the Colors tab, and then choose the color you want for the screen text and background.  You can also enter your own RGB color combination if you want.

Here we entered the RGB values to get a purple background color like Ubuntu 10.04.

Back in the Properties dialog, you can also change your Command Prompt font from the font tab.  Choose any font you want as long as the one you want is one of the three listed here.

Customizations you make via the Properties dialog are saved and will be used any time you open Command Prompt, but any customizations you make with the Color command are only for that session.

Conclusion

Whether you want to make your command prompt bright enough to cause a sunburn or old-style enough to scare a mainframe operator, with these settings, you can make Command Prompt a bit more unique.

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How to Clear the Google Chrome DNS cache on Windows

Flushing your DNS cache can be a useful tool to resolve any host connection errors that you may experience with Google Chrome or other browsers. It is very simple to do and can be done directly in Chrome or from an Elevated Command Prompt window in Windows 7 or 8.

What is the DNS Cache?

Your browser’s DNS Cache (Domain Name System) is essentially a small databank that stores all the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses for websites you access. The main purpose of this database is to make it easier for your computer to reach and access the IP addresses of websites when their servers change or if they create new servers.

When IP addresses become outdated or if a website switches to a new server, you may encounter DNS errors when you try to access them. Sometimes, due to continued use and accessing sites with a less than perfect web safety rating, your DNS cache may also become corrupted. This is where a DNS cache flush comes in handy.

What is Flushing?

Just like flushing a toilet and getting rid of any old water that is stored in the tank, a DNS flush will make your computer erase any existing information regarding DNS names and IP addresses that is has stored. After you perform a flush, the next time you try to access a website, your computer will ask for all the new IP and DNS information related to that site resulting in an error free browsing experience.

Flushing your Cache through Google Chrome

If you experience any DNS or host error related browsing issues, it can sometimes help to perform a DNS and Socket flush using your Google Chrome browser. In order to fix these problems, follow these simple steps.

Begin by opening Google Chrome and type in this address: chrome://net-internals/#dns and press “Enter.”

If you look at our screenshot, you will notice that there are 24 active entries and a list with details of all the IP addresses that the DNS cache has picked up and stored.

In order to flush your Google Chrome browser’s DNS cache, simply find the button that says “Clear Host Cache” and click it. You can click it more than once if you want to make sure it did what it was supposed to, but a single click is usually enough. You will notice that the number of active entries has gone down to 0 and the list of websites accessed has been cleared.

The next step will be to flush all the Sockets by navigating to chrome://net-internals/#sockets or by clicking on the drop-down menu on the top left of the screen and selecting “Sockets.”

Once you have arrived at the sockets page, you will need to click on both options available to you to flush them all. First, click on “Close Idle Sockets” then on “Flush Socket Pools.”

Alternatively, you could use the drop-down menu located on the top right hand side of the screen to perform both actions after navigating to “Chrome://net-internals/”

Flush DNS with Windows 7 and 8

You will need to begin by starting an Elevated Command Prompt Window. The Elevated Command Prompt window is distinguished from a regular command prompt window because the name on the top left of the window will read “Administrator: Command Prompt.” Using this method, you will be able to manipulate your computer with unrestricted access.

If you are using Windows 7, press “Start” then type “cmd” into the search bar. Simply right click on the “Command Prompt” icon followed by a click on the “Run as administrator” option.

If you are using Windows 8, you’ll need to use the Start Screen search and then right-click to open as Administrator.

Now that you have an Elevated Command Prompt window open on your windows 7 or 8 PC, it is time to begin the DNS flush. It is as simple as typing “ipconfig /flushdns” into CMD and pressing “Enter.” If you were successful, you will see the message shown in the following image.

If you want to manually verify that your computer’s DNS cache was flushed, type in this command: “ipconfig/displaydns” and press “Enter.”

You will notice that the message displayed is “Could not display the DNS Resolver Cache.” This means that there is nothing to see in the cache and the flush was successful. If you want to see something show up, simply open up Google Chrome. Once Google Chrome is open, switch back to your Command Prompt window and type in the “ipconfig/displaydns” command again.

The image above shows a list of all the items and IP addresses saved in your new DNS cache.  Now you can exit your command prompt window and resume browsing the Internet without the risk of a DNS error, since every site you access will show up as a new entry in your Cache.

How to Perform Date Calculations in Windows Calculator

Would you like to know how many days old are you today? Can you tell what will be the date 78 days from now? How many days are left till Christmas? How many days have passed since your last birthday? All these questions have their answers hidden within Windows! Curious? Keep reading to see how you can answer these questions in an instant using Windows’ built-in utility called ‘Calculator.’

No, no. This isn’t a guide to show you how to perform basic calculations on calculator. This is an application of a unique feature in the Calculator application in Windows, and the feature is called Date Calculation. Most of us don’t really use the Windows Calculator that much and, when we do, it’s only for an instant (to do small calculations). However, it is packed with some really interesting features, so lets go ahead and see how Date Calculation works.

To start, open Calculator by pressing the winkey, and type calcul… (it should’ve popped up by now, if not, you can type the rest of the ‘…ator’ as well just to be sure). Open it. And by the way, this date calculation function works in both Windows 7 and 8.

Once it’s open, click View, and select Date Calculation (or press Ctrl+E).

Now here’s where the fun begins.

The idea is pretty straightforward. You can perform two types of calculations here:

• Calculating the difference between two dates
• Adding or subtracting a number (days) to a date

Since we are messing with dates, it is easy to work with the past, present, or even future. Let’s say you want to find out your current age in terms of days, months, and years. Click the Calendar button in the From field to select your birth date. Initially, it will be showing the current date. Navigating through the calendar is easy. Click the title (Month), and it zooms back to show all the months of the year and the title is changed from Month to Year (in this case, November to 2012). Click it again to see a list of years in the current decade, and the title changes to the decade it is showing (alternatively, click the buttons on the left and right to move between years). Click the title again to show several decades.

You can use the buttons at the left and right to navigate within months, years, decades, or list of decades. Finally, to jump to the current date, click Today.

Now that you’ve learned how to navigate through the calendar, you can easily select your birth date (let’s assume it’s the 29th of February- Geeky, isn’t it?). Since we’re going to find out how old you are today, so in the To field we’ll use today’s date by clicking ‘Today.’

(Yes, the date denoted in the Today field is the date on which this post was written!)

Finally, click Calculate to get the desired result. The resulting difference will be presented in terms of years, months, and days, and simply in days as well.

Adding or subtracting a number to a specific date is a bit tedious in real life. For instance, you see this written somewhere: “43 days remaining!”, and you ask yourself “What will be the exact date after 43 days have passed”?

I’d probably tackle it this way- Let’s see, if today is November 16, and this is a 30-day month, so after 40 days it will be December 26, and adding 3 to it makes 29th December. But what day will it be? Well, maybe we should try a different approach instead. Fire up calculator, click the drop down and select “Add or subtract days to a specified date.”

Now there’s just one date field in which we have to specify the date to (or from) which you want to add (or subtract) a particular number. Once the date is set, select whether we want to add or subtract something. We’ll try addition first. Select Add, and enter the number of days (or months/years) to be added to the specified date, and press the Calculate button.

So it will be Saturday on 29th December, 2012.

You can also specify how many days, months, or even years are to be added or subtracted from the set date.  Once you’ve entered the information, click Calculate and you’ll be presented with the resulting day and date. Let’s see what the date was, 5 years, 8 months, and 80 days ago today.

And here’s a fun fact. You won’t be able to use the calculator itself unless you turn it on by clicking its ‘screen’ (just in case you want to convert days to weeks, or do any other calculation).