–Dave Methvin, Chief Techology Officer, PC Pitstop

On February 8 and 9, I had the opportunity to participate in the Anti-Spyware Coalition Public Workshop. The event brought together representatives from the software industry and government, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Center for Democracy and Technology. In the past year the FTC has filed suit against several of the worst spyware offenders including Enternet Media, and the CDT recently filed an FTC complaint against 180Solutions for its practices. The Anti-Spyware Coalition has been working to craft clear definitions of acceptable software installation behavior.

Analysis of PC Pitstop users show average hard drive fragmentation has experience a modest decline during the past years, while average free hard drive space has shown significant increases. A larger hard drive with more available space doesn't necessarily reduce the need to defragment your hard drive, but it does help to reduce the amount of fragmentation that occurs "naturally" over time. PC Pitstop still recommends that you defragment your drive at least once a week.