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One of my most recommended free defrag apps is Auslogics Disk Defrag, but another program which was recently released might be even better. IOBit’s Smart Defrag quickly analyzes your hard drive for fragments and sets to work piecing them back together. It can defrag several drives including partitions simultaneously. It can also optimize file locations and free space to get the best performance out of your hard drive, though this process takes a bit longer. The full scan time for my test machine’s 75GB hard drive (without optimization) took just over 4 minutes. While Auslogics Disk Defrag runs in about the same amount of time, it’s the added options of Smart Defrag that might make it your No. 1 defrag utility.

Smart Defrag lets you set up a schedule for defragging your hard drive so you’ll never forget to run it. You can set it up to defrag at a certain time every day, every week, every two weeks, or at any interval you want. You also can have it defrag your hard drive every time you log in to your system or even have it set to autodefrag when your computer is otherwise idle. While it remains active in your system tray (unlike Auslogics), the footprint is small and doesn’t significantly interfere with other processes.

One option, which seems small but has long been on my wish list for Auslogics Disk Defrag, is the ability to have Smart Defrag shut down my computer when it’s finished. My favorite time to turn on a defrag utility on my home gaming machine is right before going to sleep, and with the autoshutdown feature, I don’t have to worry about leaving my system running over night.

Smart Defrag is a free program, but the developer asks for donations if you like the software. My guess is, once you try it out, you might think a few bucks is worth your time for this excellent utility.

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• Adobe Illustrator Available for Windows only, Creative Docs .NET (yeah, weird name) is a vector-based graphic design tool for creating illustrations, manuals, flow charts, icons, and the like. It offers advanced features like Bezier curves, styles, convert-to-curves, and curved-path text.
• Adobe Photoshop You’ve actually got two choices here:GIMP, which is available for all platforms, and Paint.NET, which is Windows-only. Both programs offer powerful, Photoshop-caliber image-editing tools, everything from layers to special effects.
• Corel Draw Want to sketch, draw, paint, etc? In addition to an assortment of “digital brushes” including chalks, charcoals, and pencils, Artweaver offers the usual array of image-editing tools: crop, gradient-fill, transparency, layers, and so on. It also supports (and, in fact, recommends) tablet PCs for a more realistic drawing/painting feel.

I also have to include a shout-out to longtime favorite IrfanView, which is great for viewing images, making quick edits, and changing formats. Any free graphics apps you’d like to recommend? Hit the Comments and discuss your faves.

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• CrossLoop – Need remote access to another PC? It’s hard to find a simpler solution than CrossLoop. Just run the small client app on your system, then instruct the friend/grandma/user at the other end to do likewise. Presto: You’re connected, able to see and control the other PC and even transfer files.
• Revo Uninstaller – If you routinely install and uninstall new programs, ditch Windows’ crappy uninstaller and use Revo instead. It works faster and removes all traces of the selected program, leaving behind no system-clogging Registry debris, icons, etc.
• SyncToy – One of Microsoft’s little-known XP/Vista PowerToys, SyncToy offers soup-to-nuts folder synchronization between networked PCs. It’s not particularly well-documented, nor does it come with technical support, but I find it indispensable.
• Windows Live FolderShare – Another little-known Microsoft jewel, this free service not only keeps folders in sync between two or more non-networked computers (like, say, your home and work PCs), but also lets you share files with others and access them remotely.
• Xobni – Best. Outlook add-on. Ever. Xobni can automatically extract names and phone numbers from e-mail messages, search e-mail in a flash, thread your e-mail conversations, and analyze your e-mail to provide all kinds of useful information.

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As a video converter, the application supports all expected formats. You also can choose to accompany any video with audio files of your choice rather than the original sound. When you click the digital-camera icon next to the File Input box, you’ll be able to browse your computer for still images to compile a video file. If you choose to perform this action, you can apply a few transition effects, determine the image interval, and add your own music files.

When last tested, CinemaForge still had some problems with audio conversion. The video slide show was generated quickly, but even upping the bit rate didn’t help the muddy audio quality. You can tweak certain aspects of your new video, including frame rate and quality. Cropping videos, applying a deinterlacing filter, and uploading videos to the Web are also options. Frustratingly, uninstallation must be done via the question-mark icon on the main interface. Despite the aforementioned quirks, though, CinemaForge is overall a solid piece of software.

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An intuitive interface makes it easy to navigate through media quickly

(Credit: CNET Networks)

AtomicView offers a sparse, but intuitive interface for sifting through tons of images and videos quickly. It takes advantage of multi-core processors and your video hardware letting you work even while importing large amounts of high-quality media. Just drag-and-drop a folder full of images to the bottom of the interface and watch AtomicView quickly gather and display all the information about each image–without significant slow downs. From there you’ll be able to perform simple changes like batch rotating or batch renaming in only a couple of steps. You also can create groups to make it easier to find media from specific events.

Search using any number of different criteria to find specific images.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

AtomicView offers excellent viewing options, letting you go into full-screen mode with movable interface elements and different viewing variations to fit your workflow. A comprehensive search feature lets you search by a number of different criteria so you can find specific media in several ways. AtomicView supports ITPC, EXIF, and XMP Metadata formats and you can create your own fields to make finding specific shots from a subgroup of images extremely easy.

Full screen views make it easy to sort through and compare similar high-quality images

(Credit: CNET Networks)

While AtomicView doesn’t offer the editing tools of other programs, it’s the perfect fit for professional photographers and digital camera enthusiasts who need to sort through and analyze big folders of media. The image analysis-friendly interface, simple tools, and customizable views make it a natural choice for those who process large amounts of high-quality media.

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