Updated 7 March 2008 with comments/corrections from Emiel Wieldraaijer, the developer

All updates except minor typos are shown on red

What Is It?

A front end or GUI to make the setting of options and running of Jeroem Kessels wonderful JkDefrag program a breeze for the user. Not only does it accomplish this in a comprehensive way but it also provides a GUI for PageDefrag and a scheduler for running JkDefrag. This GUI is written by Emiel Wieldraaijer and the GUI automatically downloads the latest version of JkDefrag and PageDefrag when the program is started the first time.

Why Would You Want It?

JkDefrag is a simple but powerful defragmentation tool. The standard windows GUI does not allow the setting of the multiple options in the command line version nor can it be simply scheduled with out a third party scheduler. This program makes it easy for the user to set options and schedule the running of JkDefrag through a simple and familiar Windows interface. It also wraps PageDefrag into the package and provides additional useful functions as well as links to several useful resources through the help menu.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• User Interface for JkDefrag
• User Interface for PageDefrag
• Installer for JkDefrag and JkDefragScreensaver
• Scheduler for running defrag utilities
• System “Cleanup” option
• Option to automatically check for updated version of JkDefrag

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

• Portable U3 Version
• BartPE/XPE Version
• Multilingual
• Good tooltips and information
• Simple to Use
• Versatile & Useful Options
• Lots of links in the Help menu
• Provides a key to the JkDefrag colour coding under help)

Cons:What’s Not So Good?

• Can’t seem to select a subset of drives to defrag through an easy pulldown menu.
  This must be manual specified on the advanced tab through an include

More About What it Does in Detail:

The http://www.emro.nl/freeware/ website gives quite a bit of detail about the program in terms of languages and changelog but says nothing about running it. I think this is partly due to the fact that once the program is installed it is relatively obvious and there are good tooltips and information buttons provided. There is also a good slideshow through the various screens. However a little more explanation associated with the screens or as a brief text guide would be helpful. There is no statement as to which operating systems this will work on or the system requirements. A starting assumption would be that it works on the same OS’s as JkDefrag (2000/2003/XP/Vista & X64 versions as well, which seems to be confirmed looking at the changelog)

Having installed the system and running the program the following screens and menus are provided:

This review will follow the usual format of presenting the majority of information as screenshots backed up by further information where necessary.

(click on any picture to enlarge where necessary)

System Tray Icon

Right clicking on the systray icon brings up the following dialog:

These are all self evident, transparency is set in the Option Tab of the main screen.

Main GUI Screen

As can be seen this is set out as 7 tab screens

General Tab

This is the screen where the JkDefrag options are set. These options are those available in the command line version of JkDefrag. Effectively this section of the GUI is a visual front end to easily set up and run the command line version. (See http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/ for more information if you are interested).

The main options are set using dropdown menus to select:

• Action - the type of defrag operation
  
  
• Debug Level - the log messages to be output
  
  
• Disks - to select the disks to be defragged
• Speed - to set the amount of processor time allocated
• Free Space - to set the blank space at the start of the disk partition

Advanced Tab

Here you can set

• files to be specifically excluded
  
  (Information dialog when pressing “?” button)
• files to be specifically included
  
• Spacehog files to move to the end of the disk
  
• Logfile options

Options Tab

Here there are four buttons to set particular options

• On Startup
  
  
• Devices
  
  
• On Exit
  
• Misc
  

• There is also a slider to change the transparency of the GUI

Scheduler Tab

A dropdown presents a selection of different scheduling options which can be further refined depending on the basic option chosen.

Installer Tab

Provides installation options to install onto a PC

System Tab

Provides options to run PageDefrag (This is a mirror of the PageDefrag GUI so doesn’t provide anything extra but does give a single interface for all defrag operations)

Cleaner Tab

Gives a selection of options to remove temporary files, cookies, clear recycle bin, IE Cache, etc.

(Caution don’t empty the prefetch folder unless you know what you are doing as this can slow the boot process down for a while)

Help

The Help Menu provides several useful links and also a very useful colour key for JkDefrag

What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?

What is the My Free Review Experience?

This is a useful program that greatly extends the usability of JkDefrag for the average user. It also adds very useful features, particularly the scheduling. This is a new program in my collection but it certainly seems to be a keeper particularly if the one shortcoming I have found is addressed.

Personally I rate this as:

Powerful - (Apparently) Stable - Good options

What Could Make it be Better?

Ability to select the a set (subset) of drives to defragment.

Ability to schedule several different tasks

What Other Posts are Relevant?

Fast and Simple Disk Defrag with JkDefrag

Defrag Those Hard To Get At System Files with System File Defragmenter (Sysinternals PageDefrag v2.32)

Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

Why I decided to Write This Blog

What are the Tags?

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