Long story short, my computer got really messed up a couple of weeks ago. Now, it won't let me defrag. I have the defrag shortcut on my desktop, but when I click on it I get a box saying that Windows cannot open the file. Just don't know what to do to be able to defrag and am hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction.


Marti

Maybe your shortcut is messed up. Try this:

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right-click the local disk volume that you want to defragment, and then click Properties.
3. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now.
4. Click Defragment.

Thanks, Ed, but I had already tried that. I get

" MMC cannot open the file C:\WINDOWS\system 32\dfrg.msc.
This may be because the file does not exist, is not an MMC console, or was created by a later version of MMC. This may also be because you do not have sufficient access rights to the file."

Just don't know what all that means and/or how to get it to work.

Marti

Marti,

After your computer problems did you do only a partial installation of Windows? For some reason the defrag program was not installed.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922379 gives the steps for installing it.

Thanks, Ed. I'll go check that out. I do appreciate your help.

Marti

I had that happen to me once and I also could not get to the task manager.
I ended up having to start in the safe mode and from there doing a restore back to prior to the initial problem.

maybe you could try this freebie Marti:
Perfect Utilities

http://www.putils.com/

It does not list Vista as a supported operating system on the index page - but I have been using it on both XP and Vista with no problems. There is a defrag app included in the package.

You need to be careful where you get the download for that and what version it is:
http://dottech.org/freewaresr/8234