Management features. As its name implies, Defrag Manager is designed to help you implement and manage the defragmentation of systems across your enterprise. Defrag Manager doesn't include a client-side GUI interface to support users' control of system defragmentation, although you have the option to permit users to pause and resume defragmentation from a system tray icon. You can also run Defrag Manager from the command line, so you can create defragmentation scripts on licensed systems.
You install Defrag Manager on the computer that you'll use to manage and monitor defragmentation of systems throughout your network; this computer becomes the Schedule Console. Defrag Manager has deployment and management modes for systems with File and Printer Sharing enabled, for those without File and Printer Sharing enabled, and for portable systems through a third Disconnected Computer mode. After creating a defrag schedule to describe when and how Defrag Manager will defrag a system, you assign computers or groups of computers to the schedule. OU Binding lets you assign an AD OU to a schedule; then, Defrag Manager will automatically manage defragmentation for all computers in the OU. (This functionality includes license management; Defrag Manager assigns and frees licenses as OU membership changes.) Defrag Manager also supports a drag-and-drop method of assigning computers to a schedule. Figure 3 shows Defrag Manager's Schedule Console.
Aside from its Preinstalled Agent mode, Defrag Manager runs as a scheduled task, not as a service, both on clients (in Disconnected Computer mode) and on the Schedule Console. From the Schedule Console's GUI, you can also request an immediate analysis or defragmentation of a client volume—except, of course, for clients in Disconnected Computer mode.
Defrag Manager offers compelling reporting features. From the Schedule Console, you can view a nicely formatted report of the most recent action to occur on a computer, as well as the most recent log files detailing scheduled defrag actions for a computer.
Testing. Defrag Manager performed the most complete file defragmentation of the products reviewed here (by a hair), leaving no file fragments in either of my tests. With limited (5 percent) free space, it ran longer—by 38 minutes—than any other product. See Table 1 for the comprehensive results.
Defrag Manager is effective and easy to implement. It doesn't give users much control over the defragmentation of their own systems, but in most cases, that's not such a bad thing. I particularly valued the simplicity of the product's design. With only one version of the program for all supported systems, management by OU, and its use of Scheduled Tasks, Defrag Manager is a lean, mean defrag machine.
Bottom Line
Each of the programs I've reviewed accomplishes defrag's fundamental job: maintaining system performance in the face of volume fragmentation. Table 2 summarizes the products' differences in features, but the greater differences show up in the way the individual products implement these features.
Diskeeper offers an extremely workable package. Its Set-It-and-Forget-It scheduling and I/O-sensitive throttling of defrag activity in the presence of other system activity is perfect for routine workstation volume maintenance. I found its management console a little more complex and less intuitive than Defrag Manager's console. Diskeeper's product line is hands down the most complex of any of the products, with many versions and version-specific limitations. In spite of the fact that file defragmentation is much more important than free-space defragmentation, I find it puzzling that Diskeeper lacks a mode with which to aggressively consolidate free space on demand, because sometimes that's just what you want to do.
PerfectDisk has an efficient defrag engine with flexible scheduling options, but I didn't find the console particularly easy to use to manage groups of computers. Using the AD Administrative Template with Group Policy to configure and schedule defragmentation can help make up for that.
Defrag Manager excels thanks to its user friendly features—particularly, its simple deployment architecture, its intuitive console program, and its support for scheduling by AD OU or by groups that you define. The Advanced Mode Boot CD's ability to perform a complete offline defragmentation uniquely accommodates difficult situations. The CLI defrag program adds the extra flexibility you need. This combination of ease of use, simplicity of design, and broad capability make Defrag Manager my Editor's Choice.
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