How to Defragment Windows 7 | Vista | XP

Over time, the files on your hard disk drive in Windows become fragmented (or split up). The most noticeable effects of this are that the computer takes longer to startup and programmes load slower, causing Windows to run slow. To combat this, it is important to regularly defragment the files on your computer’s hard disk drive.

To defrag, is the process of piecing together all of the file fragments into contiguous blocks of data. Your Windows based computer contains a built in utility to perform this defragging.

Instructions are given below for the three most current and popular versions of Windows – XP, Vista and Windows 7.

To begin, open the run dialog box. i.e. Click on Start > Run or alternatively, press the Windows Key and R on the keyboard together. Then type into the run box (without the quotes),

Windows XP – “dfrg.msc”
Windows Vista – “dfrgui”
Windows 7 – “dfrgui”

Then click the OK button and wait for the application to load up. Once loaded, select your operating system drive (usually your C: drive) and select the option to defragment.

This process may take several hours if it has not been run for a while (or ever!), but if you perform this weekly, it should only take a matter of minutes to complete. NB – you can still use your computer whilst this process is running, however, your computer will be much slower whilst it’s defragmenting.

Alternatively, you can download and install a great free application called Defraggler which provides a nice graphical representation of the state of your hard disk drive and tends to be a bit more efficient at defragmenting than the standard Windows utilities.

Hide a user account from the Windows Welcome Screen

When a user account is created within Windows, it will automatically be visible on the Welcome screen where you logon. Perhaps you don’t want that account visible there. Maybe it’s the Administrator account and you don’t want to be “tempted” to use it? Or perhaps you don’t want another computer user to see it for security or personal reasons. Well there’s an easy registry tweak that will allow you to hide or show any of the user accounts (standard or administrator) from the Welcome screen.

Before we begin, I must warn you to be careful when editing the registry and that you should create a backup prior to making any changes. See my article on Windows registry and regedit basics for further details.

So to begin.

1. open up regedit – Start > Run > regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
3. Create a new 32-bit DWORD value in the UserList subkey
4. Name the value exactly the same as the user account you want to hide
5. Double click the value and set it to 0
6. Close regedit and log off

To show the user account

If you decide that you want the hidden user account to be visible again, then perform the same steps as above but change the DWORD value of the respective user account to 1.

The following article describes how to add or remove the shortcut arrow from the left hand corner of a Windows icon – not just desktop icons and shortcuts. This tweak applies to shortcuts throughout the whole of the Windows operating system and it works with Windows XP, Vista and 7, as well as Server 2003 and 2008.

Enable / add the shortcut arrow to Windows icons

This tweak will put the shortcut arrow back in the left hand corner of all Windows icons.

1. Open regedit (start > Run > regedit)
2. Navigate to and highlight “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile”
3. Right click on the right hand pane and select “New” > “String Value”
4. Name the new value “IsShortcut” (without the quotes)

Or you can save this reg file and then import it (open it and confirm when prompted).

Disable / remove the shortcut arrow from Windows icons

This tweak will remove the shortcut arrow from the left hand corner of all Windows icons.

1. Open regedit (start > Run > regedit)
2. Navigate to and highlight “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile”
3. Delete the “IsShortcut” value in the right hand pane

Or you can save this reg file and then import it by opening it and confirming when prompted.

Points to note

If you click either of the links to the reg files and it opens in a new window/tab in your browser then go back a page and try right clicking on the link and “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…” (depending on your Web browser).

You will need to log off and back on again (or restart) for the new settings to take effect.

Windows Registry & Regedit Basics

The Windows Registry is a database within Windows that stores important computer wide settings from applications and the Windows operating system itself as well as information about the computer hardware and individual user settings and preferences.

Within Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, the registry is split into user registry hives and system registry hives. The system registry hives (which store global or computer settings that apply to the whole of the computer and Windows) are stored in various files within C:\Windows\System32\Config. The user registry hives are specific to each user and are stored in each profile folder – e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\User1 or C:\Users\User1 (where User1 is the name of the user).

Editing the registry

Since the Windows registry stores various settings that control how Windows operates, it is important to first create a backup of any portions of the registry that you plan on changing before you make those changes!

To edit and backup parts of the registry, we use the builtin Windows tool called “regedit”. This can be accessed by typing in “regedit” into the Windows Run box (start > run or “Windows” + “R” on the keyboard) and then clicking “OK”.

Exporting and Backing up parts of the registry

Now that you have opened regedit, you must browse to the respective part of the registry that you would like to edit (firstly we will back it up). Then highlight the Hive, Key or subkey in the left hand pane and select File > Export or “right click” and Export. Browse to where you would like to save the file, give it a meaningful name, ensure the file type is set to “Registration Files (*.reg)” and click Save.

You can now (relatively) safely make the registry change you need to and should you need to revert the registry back to what it was before you made your change, you can do so by “double clicking” your saved .reg file or “right clicking” and selecting “Merge”.