PerfectDisk Blog from Raxco.com| Defrag Software

IT spending

  Research firm IDC has its latest numbers for IT spending out, and not unexpectedly, the latest forecasts are down from what they were predicting last year. The company forecasts total IT spending  to be $1.44 trillion this year, which translates to an increase of a half percent over 2008. Last summer it was predicting almost 6% growth for this year. Worldwide hardware spending is forecast to shrink by 3.6%.

                              

On the flip side, software sales are expected to increase 3.4%. While this is down from IDC's projections last year, it's still an increase. One of the reasons is likely that companies and people are trying to get more out of what they have. And software like PerfectDisk, which not only improves performance but helps extend the life of computers and servers, fits into that category. Yes, defrag software is a cool thing to have in this day and age. Defrag the old, defrag Vista, or defrag the new Windows 7.

                            

Times certainly have changed.

Defrag your mind -- join

                           

We've always tried to keep our doors "open" here at Raxco, regularly soliciting feedback from our users, whether home users or large enterprises. We continue to do so and are looking to engage our users and the technology community in various places.

                           

Twitter -- a few months ago we set up an account for PerfectDisk on this "microblogging" technology.  With Twitter, you can communicate with friends, family, colleagues -- whoever you want - with brief messages (called Tweets) that are limited to 140 characters or less. You can follow others, and others can follow you, to see what's on your mind. You can follow me at PerfectDisk on Twitter to get updates on PerfectDisk and industry news.

                 

Facebook -- this week saw the 200 millionth user join Facebook, with the fastest growing group aged 35 and up. With Facebook, you can connect with friends, family and colleagues, find people from your past, "post" what you're doing or what's on your mind, and even post pictures. So of course you can become a fan of PerfectDisk and post your thoughts on the coolest defragger onthe planet, pick up free giveaways, and get the latest PerfectDisk promotions.

                           

And there is the PerfectDisk Pro User Community, where you can ask questions of fellow PerfectDisk users, make your thoughts known to other PerfectDisk users as well as PerfectDisk management, and generally engage the PerfectDisk community.

If you're already on Twitter or Facebook, check out PerfectDisk in those places. If you haven't yet started using those tools, now's a great time to start. They're free, fun, and a great way to learn.

Join.

                    

PC Magazine Netherlands -- powerful, flexible, thorough

                       

The Netherlands version of PC Magazine gives PerfectDisk 10 Home Edition and Professional 4 stars in a recent review that is in the April edition of the magazine. The review starts out stating that "PerfectDisk 10 is een zeer krachtig en goed te configureren defragmentatieprogramma (PerfectDisk 10 is a very powerful defragmentation program). The review also highlights PerfectDisk's thoroughness, flexibility and low free space requirement, flexible scheduling including automatic background StealthPatrol, and patented SMARTPlacement optimization strategy, along with free space consolidation to improve write speed. PerfectDisk's low footprint was also lauded.

We're happy to add PC Magazine Netherlands to the long list of publications, reviewers and professionals who give PerfectDisk 10 defrag the thumbs up.

                          

SSD Defrag -- one man's story

Robert Otis is a PerfectDisk 10 Pro user, having installed it on his Lenovo Thinkpad, which has two solid state disk drives. Robert uses one drive for programs and applications, and the other for his data. He's programmed Microsoft Disk Cleanup to run at 8:15 p.m. each night on each drive. He schedules PerfectDisk to run thereafter on each drive. Robert tells us that he "can tell that the drive gets very fragmented each day, so a defragment is necessary, on a solid state drive just as much as a rotational drive."

"It's really a 'perfect' program," says Robert.

                    

Related Post:

Solid State Drive (SSD) support in PerfectDisk -- standard

Webinar -- Managing PerfectDisk 10 in the Enterprise

 

We're holding a free Webinar on Tuesday, April 21st at 12:00 p.m. noon EDT (9:00 a.m. PDT). The Webinar, Managing PerfectDisk 10 in the Enterprise, will cover:

• what's new in the PerfectDisk 10 Enterprise Console
• setup, deployment and management of PerfectDisk 10 clients

• patent-pending Virtual Awareness for boosting performance of virtualization environments, including VMware ESX. Microsoft's Hyper-V and other Windows-based hosts.

The webinar is only about a half-hour but still provides some excellent hands-on tips that you will be able to put into use. For existing business customers who have not yet deployed PerfectDisk 10, it's a great opportunity to see what's new, particularly those in or moving to virtualization environments. And for new customers or those considering PerfectDisk, it's a good opportunity to spend a little time and learn a lot.

The Webinar will be given by senior technical support engineer Erwin Solis and moderated by Greg Hayes, manager of technical solutions at Raxco Software.

You can register here.

PerfectDisk 10 Service Pack 2 (Build 104)

                  

PerfectDisk 10 Build 104 is now available. Various bugs have been fixed.

You can "Check For Updates" under the Product Resources tab in PerfectDisk, or wait for Autoupdate.

Get news like this earlier -- follow PerfectDisk on Twitter.

Multimedia instructional design worthy of an Emmy -- PerfectDisk included

                                     

To win an Emmy award requires great passion, talent and world-class dedication to your craft. Novus Technic (www.novustechnic.com), of Santa Clarita, California, has two Emmys to the credit of its staff and strategic partners. The company provides instructional and web design and development services to organizations large and small. Its web development client list includes Baxter Healthcare, Yokohama Tires, Disney, Nissan Motorsports, Bank of America, and Toyota. The term "world-class" comes to mind.

                                     

Novus is in the business of creating and doing exceptional work for its clients. It's not in the business of promoting, and certainly not in the business of promoting something outside the company. As noted above, it has a client list that any company would value greatly. So imagine our surprise -- and pride -- when we received word that Novus had emailed its customer base for the first time ever. Indeed, the email message began with these words: "we have NEVER sent an e-mail blast to our entire customer list before, and probably never will again, but we feel very strongly about what we're about to recommend."

                   

The letter then details the reasons for it being sent:

"We have been using Raxco's PerfectDisk defrag software for many years. Their newest version, PerfectDisk 10, has finally filled in the few gaps in desired features we always wanted to see. We run this software on ALL of our machines, individual PCs, our office server and our web servers. We have NO financial interest in this software or company, we don't even receive a discount other than their public coupons--it's just such good software we wanted to share it with you.
 
PerfectDisk is cheap and powerful. It runs in the background and keeps your hard disks defragmented at all times. It uses almost no resources and never slows your machines down. PerfectDisk does a far, far better job than the built-in Windows defragger and it does something that Windows can't do--it can defrag your startup and system files on reboot.
 
We have found noticeable improvements in machine speed when using this software. Our machines boot quicker, files open faster, and processes run quicker. The software is tested and endorsed by Microsoft and is perfectly safe for all Windows machines."

Passion and dedication to excellence lead to award-winning performances. In Hollywood, data centers, and homes around the world.