Pagedefrag on Vista 32bit

I'll start off by saying that a lot of info is already out there on the pagedefrag issues for OSs above XP.  Most say it's a lost cause.  That just challenges me so... I tried to find bits and pieces to explore possibilities.  I thank everyone for the time they have spent on the topic and it's helped me.  You'll see their ideas that I've listed as what I've tried.

The note below was posted for Vista that apparently works and a similar approach may work with Win 7.  In Win7 I'm stuck with the Pagefile and Hibernation File errors too.  (Although for some strange reason only the first time works for Pagedefrag after you create a new pagefile it sees it and says it's already defraged.  So, at first I thought I only had a hibernation file problem...)  

I've not been able to get the application to display the file fragments details.  It's possible the desktop composition isn't reflecting it correctly but I've tried the disable switch and running the desktop without DWM, no help.  I even thought it was a white font foreground on a white background problem... I could explore that more but the other font appearances look ok.  Hmm could be a font also.  None the less I don't use that aspect of the tool since I've always run it on boot for the past 5+ years since NT and never before had any issues.

I tried installing using the Win 7 hidden Administrator account to sort of accomplish the below approach but with no success.  My normal user account is admin level but I'm told the hidden account has some special privileges.  So, what the hay...

I tried using another non-system drive for a pagefile.

I tried different using different directories relative to the exes being in the path...

I've tried reading the human readable pieces of the code.  Registry HKLM session manager and memory management look good and consistent in Win7.

I've tried the compatibility modes.  On many you get the error about the pagedefrag driver, which is Pgdfgsvc.exe file in the windows/system32 directory to the best of my knowledge.  The file's name says service not driver?  The code uses %systemroot% environment variable to point to that file.

For now I've turned off hibernation, have a desktop, with powercfg.exe and have a fixed size pagefile on another drive and live with the pagefile not found message.  All the other defrag works for SAM, Software, Security and others.  Software is the one that I've always needed and it's defraging it from 4 to 1 or from 7 to 1 in another case so I see it working.

Originally posted by bigbmarketing
Installing PageDefrag on Vista.
I have PageDefrag installed on my Windows Vista computer. It was a challenge to figure out what to do to get it to install but here is what worked.
1) Put the 3 PageDefrag install files in your root Directory aka c:\
2) Turn off the Account Control --- yes, I know that is probably not the best suggestion but you have to do it to install.
3) reboot your computer and log into your administrator account.
4) Install PageDefrag
5) Remember to turn your Accout Control back on
6) Reboot your computer and log back into your normal windows account

some stuff I saw...

B o o t s s i n c e l a s t d e f r a g : % d

S k i p p i n g t h i s b o o t .


\ R e g i s t r y \ M a c h i n e \ S y s t e m \ C o n t r o l S e t % 0 3 d \ C o n t r o l \ S e s s i o n M a n a g e r B o o t E x e c u t e p g d f g s v c p g d f g s v c

B o o t E x e c u t e % s y s t e m r o o t % \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ P g d f g s v c . e x e  

\ R e g i s t r y \ M a c h i n e \ S y s t e m \ C o n t r o l S e t % 0 3 d \ C o n t r o l \ S e s s i o n M a n a g e r \ M e m o r y M a n a g e m e n t

C o u l d n o t q u e r y p a g e f i l e l o c a t i o n ( s ) - P a g i n g F i l e s

C o u l d n o t q u e r y p a g e f i l e l o c a t i o n ( s ) v a l u e -

U n a b l e t o o p e n p a g i n g f i l e d r i v e f o r d e f r a g m e n t -

U n a b l e t o o p e n s y s t e m d r i v e f o r R e g i s t r y d e f r a g m e n t -

\ ? ? \ C : \ H i b e r f i l . s y s H i b e r n a t i o n f i l e

\ S y s t e m R o o t \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ C o n f i g \ S A M S A M R e g i s t r y H i v e

\ S y s t e m R o o t \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ C o n f i g \ S Y S T E M S Y S T E M R e g i s t r y H i v e

\ S y s t e m R o o t \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ C o n f i g \ S Y S T E M . A L T S Y S T E M . A L T R e g i s t r y H i v e

\ S y s t e m R o o t \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ C o n f i g \ S O F T W A R E S O F T W A R E R e g i s t r y H i v e
\ S y s t e m R o o t \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ C o n f i g \ S E C U R I T Y S E C U R I T Y R e g i s t r y H i v e
\ S y s t e m R o o t \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ C o n f i g \ D E F A U L T D E F A U L T R e g i s t r y H i v e

\ S y s t e m R o o t \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ C o n f i g . E v t

\ S y s t e m R o o t \ S y s t e m 3 2 \ C o n f i g \ % s % s e v e n t l o g

E r r o r o p e n i n g c o n f i g : % x
S y s t e m f i l e d e f r a g m e n t a t i o n c o m p l e t e

Besides defragmenting the page file, the utility also defrags the event logs. If there is no 64-bit version of PageDefrag, is there some other way to defrag the event logs?

It is too bad that this has not been addressed.  With Win7 on the horizon I would hope that page file fragmentation will be addressed.  While many argue that it doesn't need to be updated because of the way the page file is accessed I would argue though that there are still instances that it is needed.  Such as when there is hardly any drive space and many programs running at the same time, there are many business out there that don’t purchase leading edge systems loaded with 8 GB of ram and two TB of drive space.   Many are the systems that I go to fix have almost no drive space left and the page file is horribly fragmented.  I fully expect to see this continue in the future.


EDIT: removed formatting added by editor used to compose original message


Edited by molotov - 17 July 2009 at 5:55pm

Considering that PageDefrag has not been updated in over two years, my personal thought is that one should not hold one's breath waiting for a version of PageDefrag that works on an x64 version of Windows, or on Windows Vista or later.

Hi Haos,

Still have issues with Pagedefrag on Vista.

PageDefrag hasn't been updated in more than two years, so this is no change from previous, similar discussions.  As the PageDefrag utility page states:

PageDefrag works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Server 2003.