DiskMax 4 RC

[KJohn]

Some of the information below is outdated. I will update it when I finalize the build. Please check out version 4.00 RC in the meanwhile and give me your comments.

NEW: 3 scanning profiles, beautiful GUI with dynamic animations, user prompting for different operations (answers can be saved), ability to delete files in use, many more locations scanned, windows 7 compatibility, etc.

Most importantly, it does every location CCleaner does (except the registry). Please leave your comments here.

Please note: Logging is not enabled in the release candidate like in the last version. Will be included in the final build.

DiskMax is a hard-disk performance tool. Generally to obtain better performance from a Windows installation, you need to do three things:

1. Remove temporary/unnecessary files (at least from the Windows partition). DiskMax removes temporary files like the ones that accumulate from Internet browsing, installing/uninstalling programs, etc. Its good to do this regularly but can be a tedious process if you want to be thorough. DiskMax automates that.

2. Remove unnecessary programs, remove unnecessary startup items, clean the registry, etc. - DiskMax cannot do that for you; but its important to do it at least once in 2 months.

3. Clean out event logs (massive speed boost in Vista especially) - Open event viewer to view your logs. They can be cleaned up from the interface, but then again its a tedious process to clean out every one of the 150 odd logs (some which can accumulate over 10,000 entries in a few days!)

4. Defragment your HDD to rearrange files in such a way as to boost performance.

Download from: Koshy John \ Software \ DiskMax

Size: 549KB

Downloads to date: 21,000

Quick Facts

- DiskMax is a standalone - it can be run from anywhere - doesn't require installing or uninstalling.

- The program can be stopped by clicking on 'Exit' at any point of time.

- Maintains a log of every execution cycle in your 'My Documents' folder. Check it to see what tasks were performed (every run will overwrite the previous run's log).

- Perfomance boost? You will not be disappointed even if you are one to manually tune your system - there's only so many times you can do it without getting tired of it.

- With the exclusion of defragmenting, the whole thing would take around 2 minutes. Defragmenting (if you choose to do so) can add anywhere from a minute to an hour to the time taken depending on how long back defragmentation was last done - but the increase in performance? Worth it without any doubt!

What does DiskMax do (in detail)?

1.Deletes (*.xml,*.txt,*.sqm) from the root of every volume.

2.Automates emptying your recycle bin (if specified), cleaning up of installation remnants, and debugging information.

3.Cleans up every user's History, Temp, Temporary Internet Files, Cookies (if specified), Recently opened documents list, explorer thumbnail cache and windows error reporting logs.

4.Clears out Windows cache, debugging info, internet logs, help center caches, repair information, DLL caches, Logs, temporary files and windows update roll-back files.

5.Removes registry entries for multiple Most Recently Used lists.

6.Clears out Windows Vista event logs (no other application out there does this).

7.Deep scans your hard-disk to remove all files of type log, old, prv, chk, swp, bak, gid, wbk, tmp and dmp. This can be cancelled if you are an advanced user who needs these types of files for immediate troubleshooting.

8.Defragments your HDD(s) - basically rearranges files around so that they can be accessed faster.

9.Displays a log of all the activites performed along with associated time stamps.

Is it safe?

If you've read what it will do carefully, yes, its safe. It will not deviate from the above described behavior. The program's core funcationality is over 5 years old now. But just to sure, here's a safety net for you - just in case you want to recover any of the files deleted: http://undelete-plus.com/download.html (Undelete Plus).

For best results, install Undelete plus in advance and run it as soon as you come to the conclusion that you might have needed any of the deleted files. Minimize HDD activity like installing/uninstalling or running other programs till your files are recovered. The Undelete help manual will give you a number of other tips. Its a useful program to have irrespective of whether you use DiskMax or not (it'll save you from accidental 'Shift+Delete's).

Your comments and suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

Edited February 27, 2009 by Koshy John

[GEOSoft]

Looks good Koshy John but I have a couple of reservations about using it on my system.

A ) I never use the Windows defrag. I prefer VOpt. Perhaps a configuration file that will allow you to use a different defrag?

B ) Are the file types to be removed configurable? Removing ALL of the .bak files on my system would destroy certain files that I rely on in case of emergency. It would be nice if I could either exclude Folders and their sub-folders from file deletion or at least exclude file types from being deleted.

Edited January 7, 2008 by GEOSoft

[Emiel Wieldraaijer]

@Koshy John

Looks nice but your program cleaningfunction will not work on international versions of Windows

Read the following registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Recent

In english version "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Recent"

In dutch version "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Onlangs geopend"

Best regards,

Emiel

[ptrex]

@GEOSoft

I never use the Windows defrag. I prefer VOpt

Why not use "Wincontig". It's Free, Fast and standalone EXE.

Probaly made in AU3 ?

regards

ptrex

[Emiel Wieldraaijer]

Why not use JkDefrag from Jeroen Kessels it's Free Fast and standalone exe

http://www.kessels.com

And there is also a GUI version for it

with the following Feature's

- Defragmentation

- Installer

- Scheduler

- Windows Cleaner (and ccleaner support)

- PageDefrag support

- Auto Update function

- Screen Saver

- Multilangual

and a lot more

http://www.emro.nl/freeware

Written by ehhhh (and with help from AutoIt forum community)

Edited January 7, 2008 by Emiel Wieldraaijer

[KJohn]

Looks good Koshy John but I have a couple of reservations about using it on my system.

A ) I never use the Windows defrag. I prefer VOpt. Perhaps a configuration file that will allow you to use a different defrag?

B ) Are the file types to be removed configurable? Removing ALL of the .bak files on my system would destroy certain files that I rely on in case of emergency. It would be nice if I could either exclude Folders and their sub-folders from file deletion or at least exclude file types from being deleted.

1. I like Vopt too, but the problem with all third party defragmenters is that they do not follow the windows prefetching 'layout.ini' file that boosts boot up and application launching. They just defragment.. Vopt is extremely good otherwise and around the same level lies JKdefrag (I've not extensively tested it but even JKdefrag does not follow the prefetching data - its only in the works...

All the same, I'll be more than willing to put in an option for selecting a different defragmenter.

Oh yeah, the program can be set to run without ever running the defragmenting session; it'll just be your reponsibility to run a defragger then.

2. File types removed are not configurable as of now. It'll be easier for me to give options for excluding folders from the deep scan rather than file types.

Presently, you can run the program up to the deep scanning section safely to keep your bak files. Just press Esc when the program gives you the 3 second count down before starting deep scan.

I'm working on your request now...

Edited January 8, 2008 by Koshy John

[KJohn]

@Koshy John

Looks nice but your program cleaningfunction will not work on international versions of Windows

Read the following registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Recent

In english version "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Recent"

In dutch version "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Onlangs geopend"

Best regards,

Emiel

Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

Why not use JkDefrag from Jeroen Kessels it's Free Fast and standalone exe

http://www.kessels.com

And there is also a GUI version for it

with the following Feature's

- Defragmentation

- Installer

- Scheduler

- Windows Cleaner (and ccleaner support)

- PageDefrag support

- Auto Update function

- Screen Saver

- Multilangual

and a lot more

http://www.emro.nl/freeware

Written by ehhhh (and with help from AutoIt forum community)

Yeah I've used JKdefrag before... I just decided I wasn't that much of a speed freak... I need to balance the need for speed and the need to keep my notebook's HDDs life long... Vista's built-in defrag, while definitely not the best, does its job pretty well without you ever noticing that it's running in the background... That said, JKDefrag is a technologically superior program to most other defragmenters out there... And looking at the screenshots of your program, I guess yours will fill the need for a defragging program much better than the little section at the end of mine!

[GEOSoft]

I can live with the folder exclusion method. I'm primarily concerned with 1 folder which may contain as many as 100 or so sub-folders. I wouldn't want anything touched in there.

[Michel Claveau]

Hi, all!

Several "externals" defrag tools use the API of Windows, for defrag (for example, JkDefrag).

standalone exe

Windows come with defrag.exe (%WINDIR%\system32). It's "standalone exe", little, scriptable (batch / AutoIt / schtasks / etc.), with many good options, and native.

Use defrag /? for see

(sorry for my approx english)

Edited January 8, 2008 by Michel Claveau

[KJohn]

Hi, all!

Several "externals" defrag tools use the API of Windows, for defrag (for example, JkDefrag).

Windows come with defrag.exe (%WINDIR%\system32). It's "standalone exe", little, scriptable (batch / AutoIt / schtasks / etc.), with many good options, and native.

Use defrag /? for see

(sorry for my approx english)

That's what DiskMax uses....

[ptrex]

@Emiel

Thanks for the tip.

Seems a perfect marriage with AU3 for scripting (a cmdline tool).

regards,

ptrex

[mrbond007]

@Koshy John

if you like you an also delete the thumbcache located in this map

@UserProfileDir & "\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer"

it's safe to delete.

[GEOSoft]

A further option that you might want to look at if you are staying with the Windows Defrag is Batch defrag. I wrote a very similar app way back that was used primarily to solve the old Win 98 Defrag problems (GEODisk) and it allowed the user to select which drives to defrag and/or scan. You just have to start with DriveGetDrives("Fixed") and put the functions in a For/Next loop.

[KJohn]

Initial post updated to reflect the latest version of DiskMax available (+ new screenshot).

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are a power user, you may not appreciate the lack of options in the program. Making things optional require more coding and most of my users don't need it - they just want a single-click Windows tune-up system. I can guarantee a performance jump in just about every system that runs it at least once. BUT PLEASE go to my website and read what it does carefully before you run it.

[genzzo]

koshy john, this is great, but on you website theres meny of the links to you programs that dosent work, all the the SpeedBoost series download links dosent work:(. please fix them, because i think you are doing a great job =). hmm i got a suggestion, maybe you could take also you clean/tweak softwares and make one big program of them all ?

Edited October 24, 2008 by genzzo

[quake101]

There is one feature I would like to see on this program, a simple "start/run" button would be nice, this would allow the user to set the options they want before running/starting the clean up. Also a stop/pause button would be nice also, first time users or users that are non-technical may want to pause the program and exit out of everything, then allow the program to start where it left off.

[genzzo]

bumped

[DexterMorgan]

bumped

huh? w.e

btw: Koshy I love this, the GUI is amazing, it is quick and it does all the things it supposed to, I would like the feature in which you can choose what not to delete, but it is great Keep up the great work, I would love to see newer versions of this How did you make the GUI?(Just a question )

[KJohn]

koshy john, this is great, but on you website theres meny of the links to you programs that dosent work, all the the SpeedBoost series download links dosent work:(. please fix them, because i think you are doing a great job =). hmm i got a suggestion, maybe you could take also you clean/tweak softwares and make one big program of them all ?

The SpeedBoost application pages are only place-holders for yet to be released applications. I'm not releasing software that does not work better than most available. Therefore it may be a while before some of them get released. Sorry! I'll work on them as fast as I can though..

There is one feature I would like to see on this program, a simple "start/run" button would be nice, this would allow the user to set the options they want before running/starting the clean up. Also a stop/pause button would be nice also, first time users or users that are non-technical may want to pause the program and exit out of everything, then allow the program to start where it left off.

You can see the settings screen every time you start up by checking the first option in the settings screen. Right now what is being done is that when the program is run for the first time, the settings are "created" at each step by asking the user their preferences wherever appropriate. A 'stop' button is a bit of a stretch but 'Pause' will definitely be implemented - I ran into problems with GUIOnEventMode when I experimented though: I was able to pause but resume didn't work for some reason.

huh? w.e

btw: Koshy I love this, the GUI is amazing, it is quick and it does all the things it supposed to, I would like the feature in which you can choose what not to delete, but it is great Keep up the great work, I would love to see newer versions of this How did you make the GUI?(Just a question )

I really want to make a GUI that would allow you to select what not to delete but to create one like that in a simple, efficient and easy to use form would take a good deal of time - I'll do it but unfortunately it's not likely to materialize in the foreseeable future.

The GUI is mostly images that I keep changing as the process progresses. I use GUIOnEventMode for the buttons. The scrolling text thingy is just a read-only edit box that is populated with lines from an array. The array acts like a queue with FIFO functionality that gives the impression of scrolling. I hope that answers your question.

[genzzo]

sounds great. im currently working on some .reg codes to optimize windows vista, maybe you can use that for something.:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

//disable warning message

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center]

"UacDisableNotify"=dword:00000001

//disable lua

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]

"EnableLUA"=dword:00000000

the title says what it does. it makes vista at least 30% faster, and much more non annoying. i got much more reg codes if you should need it