After initial hopes that Windows NT wouldn't need to be defragmented, Microsoft soon recognized that its NTFS was at least just as much subject to fragmentation as FAT file systems. As a result, the company included a free defragmentation utility in both the server and workstation editions of Windows 2000. This entirely manual utility was better than having nothing at all, but proved unsuitable for enterprise deployment. In Windows XP, therefore, Microsoft made a few upgrades to the defragmenter for XP Home, Professional and Server editions in attempt to make it more thorough and less limited in an enterprise setting. This article examines what is new with this built in XP utility and puts it under the microscope to determine if has value in a corporate deployment or should be ignored as a viable solution for network-wide defragmentation concerns.
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