Defrag Registry & Swap (Page) File

What is the Registry and why do I need to defrag it?
Registry is a database where Windows and programs store their data. The Windows Regsitry grows as data is added to it, but it never shrinks when data is removed. A bloated registry with a lot of empty space in it can slow down the boot time as well as performance as whole. Last but not least, passing invalid data to Windows programs can cause severe system complications resulting in system crash, hang and malfunction.

What is a Swap (Pagefile) File and why do I need to defrag it?
A swap file (or swap space or, in Windows NT, a pagefile) is a space on a hard disk used as the virtual memory extension of a computer's real memory (RAM). Having a swap file allows your computer's operating system to pretend that you have more RAM than you actually do. The least recently used files in RAM can be "swapped out" to your hard disk until they are needed later so that new files can be "swapped in" to RAM. One advantage of a swap file is that it can be organized as a single contiguous space so that fewer I/O operations are required to read or write a complete file. Windows dynamically resizes your pagefile as needed to ensure there is sufficient virtual memory to meet the needs of running applications, and as a result of this resizing, it is possible that your pagefile can become fragmented over time, which can slow performance of your machine. Unfortunately, the Disk Defragmenter tool doesn't defragment the pagefile.



PageDefrag v2.32
One of the limitations of the Windows NT/2000 defragmentation interface is that it is not possible to defragment files that are open for exclusive access. Thus, standard defragmentation programs can neither show you how fragmented your paging files or Registry hives are, nor defragment them. Paging and Registry file fragmentation can be one of the leading causes of performance degradation related to file fragmentation in a system.


PageDefrag uses advanced techniques to provide you what commercial defragmenters cannot: the ability for you to see how fragmented your paging files and Registry hives are, and to defragment them. In addition, it defragments event log files and Windows 2000/XP hibernation files (where system memory is saved when you hibernate a laptop).

PageDefrag works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003.

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