22nd April 1999

Lockergnomie Celal Hallac came up with a rather good way to ensure that you're getting the cleanest Defrag possible in Windows 95/98. It will involve editing SYSTEM.INI, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem for advanced users. In the [boot] section, change "shell=explorer.exe" to "shell=defrag.exe" then exit and reboot. When you load Windows next, the Disk Defragmenter should be the only program to load. Run it, then 'CTRL-ALT-DEL' to reboot upon defrag completion. Before Windows starts its boot process, hold onto the F8 key and select the "Command Prompt Only" option. In your Windows directory, type "edit system.ini" and reverse your original change. Save, exit, then 'CTRL-ALT-DEL' to reboot and get on with your life.