I do not want to run this program since my system is slow enough as it is without yet another program running all the time. But I would like to set the programs that defrag will optimise by hand so that I know exactly what is going on. Is there an output file from taskmon that I can edit to control what programs are optimized at defrag? Is there any way to "trick" defrag to rearangeing data that is not necicarily program data? Also, is there any danger to running windows defrag with the "scan drive for errors" option disabled? Are the all the files in the applog folder just part of taskmon? If it is possible to edit the output of taskmon then what do I need to delete to start over from scratch? And of course, where is a good website for information about the specifics of taskmon.exe at a more than "duu" level?

taskmon - taskmon.exe - Process Information Process Name: Windows Task Optimizer Description: The Windows Task Optimizer monitors how often you use a program and is used by defrag to optimize the harddisk for loading commonly used programs Common Errors: N/A System Process: Yes Looks like you can't specify much with defrag. you can skip the "scan drive for errors" most of the time unless you suspect problems. It should occasionally run with it though.

Defrag, when it is using Taskmon info, is only optimizing programs. It does this my moving them to the front of the drive, and then arranging the files in such a way as to make them load faster on a single pass of the read heads. (this WILL result in fragmented files. BUT, this is not bad). If you want to "fool" Taskmon/Defrag, do the following. Delete all the files in \Applog. Then run all of the programs that you want "optimized". Run Defrag Then disable Taskmon. This will not "completely" optimize your program startups, since Taskmon is recording a history of how your programs start. But, it will effectively do what you want. I think.

Humm, nice trick WhitPhil