Sharing files with your friends & family was never this easy, especially since another handy feature is that you can also split several large files at once. Splitting a file with GSplit can be done in 3 easy steps:

• Select the file that you want to split into smaller files by clicking Browse



• Click Destination Folder on the left menu and choose the folder where you want it to place the different pieces of the file. If the folder doesn’t exists, Gsplit automatically creates one.
• Click on Split file, choose thread priority and Internal Buffer size. It also gives you an option to execute a specific command automatically after splitting.

That’s it. After splitting the file, it creates an executable file which unites all the files into it’s original form. The person on the other end doesn’t need to have GSplit in order to run the file and it works like a charm.

You can also create two types of pieces, Spanned and Blocked. Spanned Pieces spans your file into different pieces onto multiple disks and asks you to insert the second disk to complete when the first one is full.

The Blocked Pieces option gives you the ability to build all the pieces in a specific folder with a specific size on each. For example, If you have a 700 MB file, you can enter the size, say 100 MB and it will split the file into 7 pieces so it’s easy for you to upload or share.

You’ll also see a Self-Uniting option, it’s preferred that you keep it at it’s default settings. When GSplit splits your file it automatically creates a Windows Executable file which joins/unites all the files together in order to restore the original file without the end-user having to install anything as mentioned above. If you un-check the Self-Uniting Option, the person who receives your split files needs to have the software in order to unite them back.

The download page also includes a portable version for your USB stick!

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For example:

Type in “g makeuseof” and it will show the Google results in your startup Menu bar for “makeuseof”.

Or type “playartist Audioslave” and it will perform a search for music for the artist Audioslave, find it, compile the results into a .M3U file and automatically play it in Windows Media player. Right now it only supports WMP but they are planning to change that soon and you’ll be able to play it in your favorite media player.

Wikipedia look-up is also nice. You can look up any thing that you need on Wikipedia without opening your browser. For example: I wrote “w counterstrike” and it gave me an overview of what Counter-Strike is in my start menu. Here, I’ve reduced the screenshot size to give you an idea.

Basic Commands that you can run with Start++ are

• Run a Wikipedia search by typing “w search term“
• Launch an application by typing “sudo cmd“
• Play music by a specific artist with “play artist name“
• Check out the weather by “weather zip code“
• Search Imdb “Imdb movie name“
• Look for any picture in your hard disk by typing in “Pic name“

It doesn’t end there.  You can add your own shortcuts by using its configuration UI and share them with your friends.

You can also extend the search functionality of Start++ by installing the plugins that are already available for download. (Link below)

Download Start ++
Download Plugins

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Diskeeper

Diskeeper is one of my favorite defragmentation softwares out there. In the past, I used to depend on the Windows built-in defrag utility to optimize and keep my hard disks in check but the perception changed after I tried Diskeeper.

After you have installed it, start the defragmentation once and it will fix any problems that your hard disk is currently suffering from. After that just leave it to Diskeeper. It will sit in the background and defrag your disks in real-time automatically when necessary. You’ll discover the change in your computer’s performance in no time.

You must be wondering that if it’s running in the background, your RAM/resources are being used making your PC slower. The answer to that is it doesn’t affect your system resources at all. It only uses the idle untapped resources to get the job done.

Download Diskeeper

PerfectDisk

PerfectDisk is an extremely thorough defragmentation application that completes defragmentation in a single run instead of multiple passes. It’s easy to use since it walks you through step by step instructions to give you the maximum outcome with detailed statistics on the fragmentation status of all of your files.

PerfectDisk uses the minimum of your system resources and has the ability to schedule automatic system defrags. Just put it on autopilot and it take care of the rest.

Download PerfectDisk

O&O Defrag

O&O Defrag is another great defragmenter which offers great flexibility. It automatically analyzes, defragments your internal and external hard disks. It comes with 5 defrag methods which particularly have different aims, each one achieving optimal results for the range of applications on each of your systems.

O&O’s defrag capacity is its other plus point which gives you the ability to defrag multiple volumes simultaneously. Its new background monitoring tool helps you defrag newly added and modified files automatically whenever your system is idle.

Download O&O Defrag

Defraggler

Defraggler is a freeware defragmenation software developed by Piriform Ltd, the same company that brought you the famous applications, CCleaner and Recuva. It allows you to defragment selectively individual files to get the job done in no time. All you need to do is run a analysis and it will list down all the fragmented files on the drive so you can select the files that you want to defrag.

It’s very easy to use. The latest version includes 64-bit support, has a nice interface and a faster defragmentation alogrithm.

Download Defraggler

IOBit Smart Defrag

IOBit SmartDefrag is a free software that offers the same features and quality as Diskeeper. The graph (as shown below) shows that it stands up head to head with the best defragmentation software out there. It gives you the options to do manual, automatic or scheduled defrags.

You’ll also notice “express” and “comprehensive” defrag options. If you choose “express” it will defrag your drives in much less time but if you choose comprehensive, it will do a great job.

It’s extremely easy to use and with its “install and forget” feature which works continuously, automatically and quietly in the background on your PC, it’s a must have

Download IOBit Smart Defrag

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a great freeware application that gets the job done in no time. After downloading and running it, it took less than 10 minutes to defrag one of my drives giving a full detailed report. It is, no doubt, designed for fast optimization. The interface is sweet and anyone whose using a defragmenter for the first time won’t have any problems at all.

It’s simple, reliable and quite fast. I would recommend Auslogics for anyone to try, since it’s free of charge anyway.

Download Auslogics Disk Defrag

JKDefrag

JKDefrag is a very simple, free to use, application that can completely take you by surprise. It’s a free GPL project; and it runs by default without you having to set up anything. Installation is very easy, just unzip the downloaded file to a specified folder and run it.

JKDefrag is completely automatic, very easy to use, does not impose any kind of load on the computer resources, with several optimization strategies, and can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows.

Download JKDefrag

WinContig

WinContig is another great tool that lets you quickly defrag files without the need to defrag the whole disk. It’s easy to use and doesn’t create any installation directories or Registry entries on your computer. It gives you two options; “Quick and Smart”.

If you choose the Quick method, WinContig does look for the first amount of free space large enough to defragment a file into and uses it. Use this defragmentation method if you use tools like Windows Defrag to defragment your hard disk on a regular basis.

If you choose the Smart method, WinContig does look for the amount of free space that best fits a file into and uses it. Also, if there is no free space large enough to fully defragment a file into, WinContig does try to reduce the number of fragments of that file.

It’s free of charge for anyone, does a fine job and can be a good fit.

Download WinContig

These were the 8 best defragmenters in my opinion that can get your hard disks clean and your computers optimized. If you think I missed something which should be mentioned and is better, please mention it in your comments.

You may also want to check out Mark’s defrag article from last October as well as Make Use Of’s poll on best disk defrag programs.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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