Defragmenting files in your computer is a good way to speed up some parts of your computer and the way it opens files. First off though what is defragging as they call it.

To really understand defragging you must first understand what fragmentation is in a computer environment. Fragmentation occurs when you install, delete, and reinstall files. The hard drive by default doesn't know to re order files to be in the same place as you delete them so it may put new files in place as the old ones were. Of course all files are not the same size and if it runs out of space in that area it moves to another. These are the basics of fragmentation.

What this can do to your computer is that when you open a file, or your computer tries to open it say at start up, the computer has to find the first part of the file then has to look for the rest of the file so it can open the rest of it. This means the computer must scan more to find that file or its parts. This in turn slows down how fast programs and processes open.

Now that you know what defraging is you can see why it is important if you install and delete a lot of programs. Even if you don't it is always a good idea to at least analyze your hard drive to see if you need to.

Now to actually go over how to defrag your computer. I know that Vista is the new system but I will also cover XP as a good amount of people still use this Operating System. In Vista click the Windows button, click all programs, click accessories, click system tools, and finely click disk defragmenter. After you click the icon in Vista a small screen will appear and in Vista it starts to analyze the hard drive automatically when you open it. After a few moments it will tell you that your hard drive is either in good condition and doesn't need to be defragmented or it will tell you that yes it does need to be defragmented. Note that in my experience it takes a longer time to defrag a Vista computer than it does a XP one. I would suggest giving your self plenty of time as it is not advisable to be doing any thing while your computer is defraging itself, especially if you have never had your computer defrag in more than a month.

For XP users this process is about the same with some variation. Click the Start Button, go all programs, accessories, system tools, and click on Disk Defragmenter. A large screen will open and you can do multiple things from here. You can analyze or defragment from here. Note also even though in general it takes less time on a XP computer it may still take a longer time if you have done more installing and deleting. The more fragments the more time it will take to fix them. So as always give yourself time to do the defraging as you shouldn't do anything else while this is going on.

A note for my suggestion of not working on your computer while defraging. When the defragmenter defrags a file it is opening the file and maybe moving parts of that file to another place; if you open or worse have a freeze up you might have files split in two that will be lost for ever. I have had this happen and don't want it to happen to anyone else.

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