User's Manual

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For example, if you never use a printer, you can turn off all background programs that are related to print
control. Simply specify this here.
If you never need to access a company network or domain, you can turn off all related background programs
and services. Simply select the applicable answer from the list.
The more unnecessary features you disable here, the quicker your computer will start up and work, because -
after this optimization - Windows will no longer run these background programs that start up automatically and
are constantly active.
You can change the setting you make here at any time by clicking on "Change profile" at the top right of
TuneUp StartUp Optimizer.
Overview
This view provides you with an overview of any optimization recommendations found. You can apply them all
by clicking once on Optimize all.
Details
Click on a recommendation or on the Details link to see detailed descriptions of the individual
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.
8.2.4. Defragmenting the Hard Disk
In this chapter, you will find out why it is important to do so and how you can use the TuneUp 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.