O&O Defrag 17 – Looking to the future and the past

In recent years, whenever we have published a new version of O&O Defrag or any of our other products we have placed the focus in development on the following aspects: better performance, better results and better compatibility with the latest Windows versions. We have often released new versions when Microsoft also released a new version of Windows and we have adapted our products accordingly.

We always kept an eye on compatibility with older versions too but sadly we also had to say goodbye to major versions, such as Windows NT 4. Just this year we had (again) a customer who switched from O&O Defrag 2.0 to the latest version because he has shut down his old Windows NT 4 Server and was now working with Windows Server 2012. I must confess that this was an emotional moment in a way for me because O&O Defrag 2.0 was released in 1999. Our customer had therefore happily worked with our product for 14 years with no problems!

This may have been the reason why I chose to look back and ask myself which operating systems are our customers now using in addition to Windows 8? The vast majority are using Windows 7 and Windows XP. Vista plays – not surprisingly – a very small role here. And even if Microsoft has now (for real it seems) announced the end of XP as of next year we still wanted to meet the needs of these customers too with our new Version 17. That is why we have optimized and tested O&O Defrag 17 not only for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 but also specifically for Windows XP and subsequent versions. It is precisely on older machines where a regular defragmentation can bring such a huge increase in speed, meaning older systems can still be used over long periods of time, such as with our customer I mentioned above. Defragmentation not only saves money but also saves resources as these older PCs do not have to be scrapped in favor of newer, expensive ones. It is if you like a kind of “in-place recycling”.

We have of course implemented many new features and improvements into O&O Defrag 17 which you can read about in detail on our product page. I invite you to try O&O Defrag so you can see for yourself how it can provide an excellent service to you for many years to come.

[sig_olaf_en]

P.S.: If you are happy with your current version of O&O Defrag and have perhaps also benefited from it for many years then please post your thoughts here. I would be delighted to hear your story!

Olaf Kehrer is Managing Director of O&O Software GmbH and is responsible for product development. His focus is centered on developing new concepts for the system tools sector as well as in expanding and adapting existing product lines. Olaf Kehrer was one of the founders of O&O Software GmbH in 1997 and has played a primary role in developing O&O products. Even today, he stands at the very center of their further development and remains dedicated to the goal of creating the best possible products for O&O customers. He has also published white papers on the subject of "Data Data Everywhere". These papers analyzed the handling of obsolete and discarded hard disks and their undeleted data. Olaf Kehrer studied at the Technical University Berlin and has a diploma in Computer Science.