I've used O&O Defrag for a couple years now, and up until now I was always satisfied, but since O&O Defrag 12 the defrag algorithms seem to have dropped in effectiveness significantly.

Especially the access algorithm seems to be doing exactly squat. Files which are being accessed all time aren't moved at all, like they are supposed to. Anyway, I ditched the junk and set out to find me another defrag application.

I tried Defraggler, which was very nice but way too simple. I needed more. I tried PerfectDisk, it was better but not what I was looking for. I took a look at Auslogics Disk Defrag, something different, but still not what I wanted.

Until I stumbled upon MyDefrag...Why MyDefrag ROCKS:

My very first thought was "WTF is this piece of garbage?", but trust me, this is, by far, the best defragmentation tool out there.

Why? Because you can write your own defragmentation algorithms. Yea, you read right, your own algorithms.

That is, when and if you've read yourself through some tutorials how to write defrag algorithm scripts. All you do is write your script in Notepad, save it as yourscript.MyD, move it to your MyDefrag installation folder, start up MyDefrag, select script (algorithm) and off you go!

MyDefrag comes with a couple of standard and most used scripts, such as Sort by Access, Sort by Size, Standard Defragmentation, Move to End of Disk, Optimize Daily/Weekly/Monthly, and many more. So you don't have to worry to read tons of tutorials how to write 'em.

There are also plenty of user made scripts on the official forums and the internet. Hit google.com, I guarantee you'll find a script just for your needs!

Though I strongly suggest you learn how to write your own scripts, only then will you tap into MyDefrag's true potential. Because let's face it, nothing beats scripts tailored to your specific needs and only you know what they are!

On a practical note, I do see an increase in performance after using my own scripts, although not a very big one, but an increase nonetheless.

Example scripts that come with the installation are Sort By Last Access , Move To End Of Disk, Consolidate free space, or a user written one Full Optimize from the MyDefrag forums.

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I've got a few emails lately asking me what kind of plug-ins I use with my WordPress blog! I confess, I'm a lazy baastich, I use a lot of plugins which make writing posts and managing the blog easier. Why should I not?

In its raw form, WordPress provides everything one needs to start blogging immediately. That's the biggest plus! I've tested a few blog and CMSs and a lot of them were either very bloated or had almost no customization available.

Check out the 22 plugins I'm using...

Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button (download):

Social media becomes increasingly popular and readers like to share what they read with their friends. To make it convenient for the reader, Add to Any provides a button with many popular social media sites. Sharing was never easier.

After The Deadline (download):

After The Deadline is an integrated spell/grammar/style-checker which operates externally. It uses a database with thousand of users linked to it. Think cloud and spell/grammar/style-checking.

All in One SEO Pack (download):

Optimizes your blog for Search Engines.

Configurable Tag Cloud (download):

The standard tag cloud provided by WordPress.org was not satisfactory and I was too lazy fiddling in the  PHP files to style and configure it to my liking. Configurable Tag Cloud is what I wanted. A customizable widget!

Contact Form 7 (download):

A highly customizable contact form. Check "contact" in the navigation bar to see it in action!

Cute Profiles (download):

I ran out of space when I was linking my social profiles in the navigation bar. Cute Profiles adds all your Social Profile icons vertically on left or right side of your pages, which will remain visible all the time though the page is scrolled and without consuming the sidebar space.

FancyBox for WordPress (download):

A fancy way to display images on your blog. Using jQuery it enables you to use animations for resized images. From thumbnail to full-image and back to thumbnail.

Fast Tube (download):

A fast and very easy way to embed YouTube videos into your blog.

GD Star Rating (download):

Giving the reader the ability to rate your posts, pages and/or comments via a very complex star-rating system. It takes some time to properly configure it. But default settings are good and ready to go.

Google XML Sitemaps (download):

Having XML Sitemaps is a must if you want your blog to be SOE friendly. Though the add-on says Google XML, it actually creates the XML Sitemaps for Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com

Ozh' Admin Drop Down Menu (download):

I didn't like how all the admin menu links were left in a bar, so I got this one. The admin menu links are organized in a neat horizontal CSS driven drop down menu this way.

Quotes Collection (download):

A widget displaying your collected/favourite quotes.

Revision Control (download):

By default WordPress saves each post/page's content each time you save as a revision, so you can go back to a specific revision. I don't need it since I use external editors for that. Besides that it's a waste of database space.

Search Everything (download):

WordPress default search is very limited, and I wanted to be able to search a lot more. Search Everything provides just that. I can search posts, tags, links, pages, comments, drafts, category names, and a lot more.

TinyMCE Advanced (download):

WordPress' default editor has too few options for me, and I often had to manually enter my desired HTML-tag via the "HTML" editor. TinyMCE Advanced take care of that by providing you more options.

WordPress.com Stats (download):

Statistics, statistics and more statistics. If you want a lot of statistics, this is the plug-in for you. Though there are better statistics tools, like Piwik.

WP-DBManager (download):

Manage your WordPress database. Optimize, repair, back-up and more.

WP-PageNavi (download):

A fancier way to display page navigation. See at the bottom of the blog. Highly customizable via CSS.

WP-PostViews (download):

Providing a way to show the count of post-views. You can exclude bots, and restrict the counting to everybody, registered users, or guests only.

WP-SpamFree (download):

Comment-Spam is a problem! And WP-SpamFree takes care of that, I mean REALLY takes care of that!

WP Security Scan (download):

Scans your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (download):

I wanted to be able to link my posts to other related posts. This plug-in uses, in my opinion, a very good algorithm linking related posts and showing them at the end of each post. Algorithm is to some extend customizable by allowing, excluding, adding extras, considering with extra weight, etc.

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I'm an avid user of system applications. I like to know what's going on my system.  Which is why I'm using a lot of Windows Sysinternals utilities like AutoRuns, Process Monitor, Process Explorer. To some extend also some of NirSoft's Utilities.

Well, recently I stumbled upon what you may call an "application center", KLS Soft's WSCC aka Windows System Control Center.

Essentially, WSCC provides a convenient GUI and lists all of Sysinternals', NirSoft's and Window's own utilities in a comfortable order. There are 2 ways to run WSCC, though.

You can choose not to download every application which results in longer starting times of each application. Because every time you start WSCC the application needs to be downloaded and cached. The cache is emptied upon closing WSCC and you have to re-download said application upon starting WSCC again.

Or you can choose to download every one of the applications via "Updates" in the upper right corner in a chosen folder resulting in shorter starting times.

WSCC is a must-have for everybody who likes to know what's going on with their system! The sheer amount of utilities should satisfy almost any need!

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Thanks to Carsten Knobloch a.k.a. Caschy, a german blogger, I found an interesting software. SpaceSniffer allows you to show how much disk space each application, down to each single file, uses the graphical way. It's available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7, and it's freeware!

What it essentially does is, it scans the whole hard drive, renders different images depending on disk usage and assigns them to each single file and folder. There's a way to show more details, meaning going deeper down to show the usage of each single file, or less details showing only the folders.

SpaceSniffer is more focused on clean graphical display than detailed information, like WinDirStat for example. You can directly manipulate the files/folders from inside the application. Double clicking a "block" will cause it to show you more detailed information (files) about it.

One use, suggested by Caschy, would be to delete unnecessary files if you plan to do backups. Saves time and disk space. I'm sure there are other uses for it, I personally use it to check usage by each application I have installed.

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I've been looking for a way to capture my screen (not screen-shot it, but real-time capture) while on my OS (WinXP). I've found a lot solutions, but all of them involved shelling out money one way or another. Now why would I do that, when in the age of Open Source and Freeware there are free solutions for almost everything?

So I set out to look for an Open Source/Freeware solution, and I've found one! VirtualDub coupled with VH Screen Capture Driver works like a charm!

First you need to download and install VH Screen Capture Driver, then you start up VirtualDub.

In VirtualDub you do the following:

Step 1:  Switch to Capture Mode

Step 2:  Select Capture Device

This is why you need to install VH Screen Capture Driver, before VirtualDub, otherwise you won't have the Screen Capture "Driver".

Step 3: Set your capture file

Choose its name and its location.

Step 4: Configure the capture devide / filter

You need to config VH Screen Capture Driver in order for it to run correctly.

Press "select" then put in your current desktop resolution in Width / Height. I'm running my PC in 1920 x 1200 resolution.

And that's pretty much it. Didn't cost a cent!

You can record uncompressed audio/video and transcode it later:

or you can choose to expirement with those setting to your best liking! I personally record uncompressed and transcode it afterwards.

Enjoy!

Edit: According to some users, this method does not work with Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Addendum 18.08.2010:
If you are a Windows 7 user, I suggest you use Fraps to record your desktop. Fraps has the ability to record your Aero desktop, which is awesome. No more hassle. Start Fraps, and start recording.

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