Microsoft Drive Optimizer

Microsoft Drive Optimizer
Other namesDisk Defragmenter (Windows 95–7)
DeveloperMicrosoft
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
TypeDefragmentation software
LicenseProprietary commercial software

Microsoft Drive Optimizer (formerly Disk Defragmenter) is a utility in Microsoft Windows designed to increase data access speed by rearranging files stored on a disk to occupy contiguous storage locations, a technique called defragmentation.

Defragmenting a disk minimizes head travel, which reduces the time it takes to read files from and write files to the disk. As a result of the decreased read and write times, Microsoft Disk Defragmenter decreases system startup times for systems starting from magnetic storage devices such as a hard disk drive (HDD). Defragmentation however is unnecessary and harmful to storage devices that use flash memory like SD cards or solid-state drives (SSDs), as these do not use a head. Doing so may decrease lifespan for these types of devices.

In Windows 8 and later it was renamed Defragment and Optimize Drives; SSDs were optimised in a useful and appropriate way by performing TRIM operation instead.

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