How to disable automatic drive optimization in Windows 10
Microsoft Windows 10 runs scheduled maintenance tasks on a regular basis; one of the tasks optimizes any hard drive connected to the system at the time.
The operating system checks platter-based drives for fragmentation and will run defrag operations on the drives if fragmentation levels cross a certain threshold. Solid State Drives are treated with the TRIM command instead.
And yes, defragmenting is still useful.
Windows 10 runs the the optimization task once a week by default. You may have noticed periods in which the operating system became less responsive, and that may have been caused by defrag operations running in the background.
The use of third-party programs to optimize drives is another reason for disabling automatic defrag or TRIM optimizations in Windows 10.
Drive optimization in Windows 10
So, how do you get to the "Optimize Drives" interface shown on the screenshot above?
- Open File Explorer.
- Switch to the This PC display.
- Right-click on any drive connected to the computer and select Properties.
- Switch to the Tools tab in the drive's properties window.
- Activate the optimize button under "Optimize and defragment drive".
The Optimize Drives interface lists all connected drives that are mounted in the interface. You will notice that drives without drive letter are not listed in the interface even though they may be connected to the system.
Each drive is listed with its name and drive letter, its type, status, and the time and date optimizations were run on the drive.
Note that you cannot refresh the listing once it is open. If you connect a drive after opening Optimize Drives, you need to close and reopen the interface to find it listed under drives.
The type of drive determines which options are available to you. Optimize is available for all drive types; the type of optimization depends on the drive type with defragmentation being run on platter-based hard drives and TRIM operations on Solid State Drives.
Analyze is only available for platter-based drives. Analyze checks the drive's fragmentation status and updates it in the interface after the analysis completes.
Scheduled optimization information is displayed in the lower part of the interface. It highlights whether scheduled tasks are enabled and the task's interval.
A click on "change settings" opens a menu that you may use to disable automatic drive optimization or change other parameters of the maintenance task.
The following options are provided:
- Enable or disable scheduled optimization of drives.
- Change the frequency from the default weekly interval to daily or monthly.
- Disable the task priority increase feature if three consecutive scheduled runs are missed.
- Customize optimizations for individual drives.
You may use the last option to turn off automatic maintenance of some drives; useful if you don't want certain drives to be included in the optimization.
You may disable the automatic inclusion of new drives in optimization tasks in the configuration menu as well.
Task Scheduler
While you can manage the optimize drives tasks using the configuration interface, you may also disable it using the Windows Task Scheduler.
- Tap on the Windows-key to display the Start Menu.
- Type Task Scheduler, and select it from the list of results.
- Go to Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Defrag.
- Right-click on the ScheduledDefrag tasks and select disable from the context menu.
Related articles
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- Smart Defrag 5 Review
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277