I have a list of programs that I use when I want to give my system a checkup: Avast!, Spybot, Ad-Aware, and DIRMS. All programs can be used for free. They cover anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-adware and defragmentation, respectively.

Every once and a while I'll run these programs and usually end up taking a day or two to get through them all (I run them when I'm not using my computer, which is hardly ever while I'm at home). I got fed up with having to run-and-wait and run-and-wait so I looked into how I could easily automate these tasks. My first thought was to turn to Windows' Task Scheduler. Unfortunately, it's abysmal. I can't schedule anything at any specific time because my patterns of computing are that irregular. Batch file to the rescue!

I wrote up a batch file that will run Spybot and then defragment my C and F drives. I wanted to include Ad-Aware and Avast! in the batch file, but apparently the free versions of those programs don't include a command-line interface; you have to purchase the upgraded software to get that functionality (how silly is that?). Some files are listed below for your perusal.

Files

• DirMS.exe - this is the command-line defrag software. Make sure this is in the same directory as your batch files.
• dirmscf.bat - this is the batch file that just defrags the C and F drives.
• spybotdirmscf.bat - this will update Spybot, scan, quarantine, and fix all problems, then defrag the C and F drives.

You can easily modify these files to work for you. Just open them in a text editor and edit the paths to the programs that you're using. I've placed the dirms.exe file next to my batch files in the root of my F drive, simply for ease of navigation. You'll have to edit the location of dirms.exe and the Spybot executable to get them to work.