User manual

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recommendations. Alternatively, switch to the Details tab. Here you can apply all recommendations by
clicking once on Optimize all.
Click on a recommendation in the "Optimization recommendations" column. A description of the program and
the recommendation are displayed in the right-hand area of the window. If you wish to allow the optimization,
click on Apply recommendation at the bottom right.
Hiding and Showing Recommendations
If you do not want to accept a recommendation, click Hide recommendation. Now you can select whether
you want to hide it permanently or only for 30 days. The number of hidden recommendations is always
displayed in the taskbar on the right. By clicking on the number displayed, you can easily show these
recommendations again.
7.2.5. Defragmenting the Hard Disk
In this chapter, you will find out why it is important to do so and how you can use the AVG Drive Defrag to
defragment your hard disks.
There are many reasons why a computer may become noticeably slower over time. One of them is the gradual
fragmentation of the hard disk. This can be described as follows:
New files are first saved as a block to an empty hard disk one after the other. If you then, for example, deleted
a file in the middle, there would be a gap in the hard disk. Windows uses this gap later to store the next file
that you save to the hard disk. If this gap is not big enough, Windows then splits the file and stores the
second half at another location. Over time, more and more gaps are created and more and more files are
fragmented into pieces (fragments), i.e. the degree of fragmentation increases.
This really slows down the performance of your computer: Every time you call up a file, this has to be read
from the hard disk, which would of course happen faster if the file was stored in one place. In technical terms:
If fragmentation is high, the hard disk reading heads must always be realigned in order that they can load the
individual fragments of a file.
A simple way to speed up your system is therefore to defragment the hard disk. As the conventional
defragmentation often takes a long time, AVG Drive Defrag offers you two different modes. You either decide
for yourself how defragmentation should take place, or allow AVG Drive Defrag to make the decision for you.
Find out below what exactly happens during the two defragmentation modes:
Thorough Defragmentation
This defragmentation mode arranges the newly sorted files particularly intelligently: system files that are
used frequently are stored at the start of the hard disk, so that Windows can find them again in no time
at all.
It is clear that this defragmentation mode will take longer than simply consolidating the files. AVG Drive
Defrag is therefore also carried out with particularly low priority so that you can continue working
almost undisturbed. This procedure speeds up the booting of Windows considerably. Frequently used
programs also start faster. This noticeably increases the performance of the computer.
Fast Defragmentation
This defragmentation mode consolidates all files again so that they can be read noticeably faster.