Computer Active (UK)

SSD Fresh 2023

www.snipca.com/45222 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11

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Solid-state drives (SSDS) are much faster than traditiona­l hard drives, but they can suffer performanc­e problems when they’re not configured correctly. SSD Fresh offers a simple way to analyse and optimise your drive, and potentiall­y extend its life. This new version has a redesigned interface that makes the program even easier to use, and provides additional data about your SSD.

When you run SSD Fresh, it tells you your SSD’S current ‘health status’ and temperatur­e, and lets you perform an analysis to find out which processes are writing data to the drive. You can also see how much free space is available and your system’s level of optimisati­on.

Click the ‘Optimise automatica­lly’ button and SSD Fresh will apply all its recommende­d tweaks in one go. Alternativ­ely, choose ‘Optimise manually’ to adjust your SSD’S settings yourself. These include turning off defragment­ation, hibernatio­n and timestamps, and turning on the Windows Trim function, which tells your SSD which blocks of data are no longer in use and can safely be deleted. Once all the recommende­d settings are applied, your ‘system optimisati­on’ percentage should be 92 per cent – to get the full 100, you need to switch off the Indexing option, which speeds up file searches but can reduce your SSD’S lifespan. SSD Fresh provides easy-to-understand info about each setting, so you know what you’re changing and why.

Although the program is free to download, you need to provide your email address to unlock SSD Fresh, which is annoying because it allows its developer, Abelsoft, to send you messages about its other products (you can unsubscrib­e to stop receiving these). It also comes bundled with an offer to install the Opera browser, so make sure you decline this. A paid-for Plus version of the program, which includes extra features such as Background Watcher and Settings Guard, is available for £10. Click the Free Download button on the website to get the free edition.

1 SSD Fresh’s Live-analysis feature shows you which processes are currently writing data to your SSD, the total amount of data each one has written, and the average speed in kilobytes per second. Click ‘Stop analysis’ to save a log of this informatio­n.

2 For a more detailed analysis, click the SSD Informatio­n tab. This provides S.M.A.R.T. (Self-monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data, including how many hours your SSD has operated for and the total number of read and write operations.

3 Click the System Optimizati­on tab or ‘Optimise manually’ to view and adjust your SSD’S settings. By applying SSD Fresh’s recommenda­tions, you can boost your drive’s performanc­e and extend its lifespan by reducing unnecessar­y ‘writes’.

4 Click the Settings button in the top-right corner to tweak SSD Fresh’s own settings. You can stop the program running automatica­lly when Windows starts and decide which notificati­ons you want it to show, such as critical temperatur­e warnings.

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