If you want to know how to defrag Windows 10, then you’ve come to the right place.
Defragging Windows may seem like quite a mundane task, but it’s actually quite a useful one. This is because it can help to speed up the time it takes to access data on your hard drive by moving all the fragments of data closer together.
As well as being a useful process, defragging is also a pretty simple one, as our handy step-by-step guide below will show you. Although it’s worth knowing that defragging is not recommended if you your PC uses an SSD, so only those with a HDD (hard disk drive) should follow the below steps.
Hardware Used
- Lenovo Legion 5
- Windows 10 Home
The Short Version
- Search ‘defrag’ in the Windows search bar
- Select the drive you’d like to optimise
- Press ‘Optimise’
Step
1Search ‘defrag’ in the Windows search bar
The first step to defrag your PC is to bring up the ‘Defragment and Optimise Drives’ menu. To do this, simply search ‘defrag’ into the Windows search bar, and it should bring up a result for the menu.
To go into the menu, either click it or press the Enter keyStep
2Select the drive you’d like to optimise
Once the menu opens, you then need to select the drive you’d like to optimise by clicking on it in the menu.
You can basically optimise any drive you wish, be it your Windows drive or any extra hard drives you have installed, including external ones.Step
3Press ‘Optimise’
To begin the optimisation process, then press the ‘Optimise’ button. You may get a dialog box asking for administrator permissions to perform the task; just press ‘Yes’ on any of these.
Once this is done, the process should be complete.
FAQs
No, defragging is completely optional and your PC can run perfectly fine without doing so. But it’s still arguably worthwhile to eke out the best possible performance.
It can do, yes. By storing your data in a continuous manner, it makes it easier and faster for your PC to read all the data files on your hard disk, improving your computer’s overall performance.
No, we don’t recommend anyone to defrag their PC if it has an SSD instead of a HDD.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
