Windows XP Tutorials

Disk Defragmenter as a Scheduled Task

This Tutorial will show you how to set up Disk Defragmenter to run automatically, to make using the computer more convenient for you, while at the same time keeping your Hard Drive Data in good order. Let the computer do the disk maintenance for you!

Step One

Click 'Start'
Then select 'Control Panel'
double click 'Scheduled Tasks'

Or you can open the Run window and type "control schedtasks" then press the Enter key this will also open Scheduled tasks.

Step Two

double click 'Add Scheduled Task'.
This will bring up the Scheduled Task Wizard

Step Three

Click 'Next'

Step Four

Click 'Browse'

Step Five

Enter 'My Computer'

Step Six

Enter your "local disk C:" drive
( or your main drive if different )

Step Seven

Enter your "WINDOWS" folder

Step Eight

Enter your 'system32' folder

Step Nine

Find from the list a program called 'defrag.exe'
make sure you select this exact file 'defrag.exe'
then click Open

Step Ten

Select 'Weekly' from the list
then click next

Step Eleven

Choose a time that's best for you, maybe over night while you are not using the computer or while you are out, ( assuming that the computer will be on at this time ) because if your computer is off the scheduled task will NOT run.
Then Click next

Step Twelve

Now in this box you need to enter your windows log-on password so the program has the privileges to run when it needs to,
Then click next.

Step Thirteen

Select the box "open advanced properties for this task when i click finish" and click 'Finish'

Step Fourteen

In the run box, at the end make sure you add a space and add 'c:' to it as you can see in the picture below!

Step Fifteen

Click 'Apply'

Step Sixteen

The 'account information' pops up again you need to enter your windows log-on password once again then click OK.

Step Seventeen

Click OK

Well Done!!

That was a long one I hope you all completed the tutorial with no problems,if you did you have now set up a scheduled Disk Defragment, so you no longer have to worry about remembering to run the Disk Defragmenter once a week.

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