Advanced preferences

Last updated on Jun 7, 2022

On the Advanced tab of the preferences dialog you can enable advanced features and access the main configuration file.

Check Deep action if you would like to process all files ignoring all the options set on the defragmentation and optimization tabs. Usually that does not make sense, but in some cases it is very useful. For instance, if you would like to move everything to the beginning of the disk and pack as tight as possible to prepare the disk for shrinking, just check this option and perform the full optimization then.

If you would like to quickly test the disk processing methods check Quick test mode. No files will be actually moved on the disk, but everything else will work the same way as in normal operation.

To access the most advanced options of UltraDefrag click UltraDefrag configuration file > Edit. Alternatively, you can open the following file manually in your favorite text editor: {installation_folder}\conf\options.lua.

Note

If the program says it cannot open the file, that indicates that most likely you have a 64-bit edition of Windows, but the .lua file extension is associated with a 32-bit text editor. Please install a 64-bit edition of the text editor or associate the .lua extension with the built-in Windows Notepad.

Check the following configuration file which UltraDefrag uses by default for the complete information about all the available options:

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- UltraDefrag configuration file
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- This file contains all UltraDefrag settings. It controls behaviour
-- of the graphical interface, the Windows Explorer's context menu hander,
-- the automatic defragmentation module and, finally, the boot time interface.
--
-- In most cases there's no need to edit this file manually as all the most
-- useful settings are easily configurable via the settings dialog of the
-- graphical interface.
--
-- This file is written in the Lua programming language. There's no need
-- to learn it thoroughly to edit this file, only basic knowledge is required.
-- To get an idea of how it works we do recommend you to read the official Lua
-- reference manual at https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/
--
-- Also it's worth mentioning that you can use Unicode characters in strings
-- in this file as UltraDefrag uses an improved version of Lua which supports
-- them. All you have to do is to open this file in the Notepad++ editor and
-- then save it in UTF-8 (without BOM) encoding.
--
-- Also Notepad++ features syntax highlighting which makes it much easier
-- to edit the file. The latest version of Notepad++ can be downloaded
-- for free from http://www.notepad-plus-plus.org/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 1. Common options
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- These options control behaviour of all the UltraDefrag interfaces
-- mentioned above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- A. Defragmentation options
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to 1 (one) to remove temporary files before defragmentation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

clean_temp_files = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- List of semicolon separated paths which have to be defragmented.
-- Examples:
--   in_filter = "*.jpg;*.png;*.gif" -- defragment pictures only
--   in_filter = "?:\\windows\\*"    -- defragment windows folders only
-- Keep it empty ("") or set to "*" to defragment everything.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

in_filter = ""

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- List of semicolon separated paths which have to be skipped.
-- Examples:
--   ex_filter = "*temp*;*tmp*;*recycle*"      -- exclude temporary content
--   ex_filter = "*.avi;*.mkv;*\\video_ts\\*"  -- exclude movies
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ex_filter = "*system volume information*;*temp*;*tmp*;*recycle*;*dllcache*;*ServicePackFiles*;*Windows.old*;*.log;*\\Windows\\servicing\\*"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Popular patterns intended for inclusion in filters.
-- For more extensions visit http://www.fileinfo.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

archive_patterns = "*.7z;*.7z.*;*.arj;*.bkf;*.bz2;*.bzip2;*.cab;*.cpio;*.deb;*.dmg;*.gz;*.gzip;*.lha;*.lzh;*.lzma;*.rar;*.rpm;*.swm;*.tar;*.taz;*.tbz;*.tbz2;*.tgz;*.tpz;*.txz;*.xar;*.xz;*.z;*.zip"
audio_patterns = "*.aif;*.cda;*.flac;*.iff;*.kpl;*.m3u;*.m4a;*.mid;*.mp3;*.mpa;*.ra;*.wav;*.wma"
video_patterns = "*.3g2;*.3gp;*.asf;*.asx;*.avi;*.flv;*.mov;*.mp4;*.mpg;*.rm;*.srt;*.swf;*.vob;*.wmv"
disk_image_patterns = "*.fat;*.hdd;*.hfs;*.img;*.iso;*.ntfs;*.squashfs;*.vdi;*.vhd;*.vmdk;*.wim"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set these variables to 1 to include patterns defined above to in_filter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

include_archive = 0
include_audio = 0
include_video = 0
include_disk_image = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set these variables to 1 to include patterns defined above to ex_filter.
-- By default all the variables are set to 1 because archives, multimedia
-- files and virtual machines rarely benefit from defragmentation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

exclude_archive = 1
exclude_audio = 1
exclude_video = 1
exclude_disk_image = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Skip fragments bigger than specified.
-- Example:
--   fragment_size_threshold = "20 MB"
-- Set it to an empty string ("") or zero ("0") to process fragments
-- of all sizes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

fragment_size_threshold = "20 MB"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Skip files bigger than specified.
-- Example:
--   file_size_threshold = "100 MB"
-- Keep it empty ("") to defragment files of all sizes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

file_size_threshold = ""

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Skip files having less fragments than specified.
-- Example:
--   fragments_threshold = 5 -- skip files having less than 5 fragments
-- Set this parameter to zero to defragment files regardless of their
-- number of fragments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

fragments_threshold = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- During SSD defragmentation skip files having less fragments than specified.
-- Example:
--   ssd_fragments_threshold = 20 -- skip files having less than 20 fragments
-- Set this parameter to zero to defragment files regardless of their
-- number of fragments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ssd_fragments_threshold = 20

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- B. Optimization options
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- File sorting criteria. Available options are: PATH (sort files by path),
-- SIZE (sort files by size), C_TIME (sort files by the creation time),
-- M_TIME (sort files by the last modification time) and A_TIME (sort files
-- by the last access time).
-- Example:
--   file_sorting_criteria = "PATH" -- sort files by path
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

file_sorting_criteria = "PATH"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- File sorting order. Available options are: ASC (ascending) and DESC
-- (descending).
-- Example:
--   file_sorting_order = "ASC" -- sort files in ascending order
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

file_sorting_order = "ASC"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Skip files bigger than specified.
-- Example:
--   optimizer_file_size_threshold = "20 MB"
-- Keep it empty ("") to sort out files of all sizes. Though, we do recommend
-- to use the default value ("20 MB") as sorting of big files doesn't affect
-- system performance and just wastes time. Also keep in mind that UltraDefrag
-- needs larger free space gaps to sort out larger files, so in case they are
-- not available on the disk, large files won't get sorted out no matter what
-- value is set for this option.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

optimizer_file_size_threshold = "20 MB"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- If this option is set to 1 then during SSD optimization
-- UltraDefrag will defragment and trim the disk only.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ssd_defragment_and_trim_only = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set this option to 1 to ignore all the filters set above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

deep_action = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- C. Miscellaneous options
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Skip disks entirely when their fragmentation level is below than specified.
-- Example:
--   fragmentation_threshold = 10 -- ignore fragmentation level below 10%
-- Set it to zero (0) to process disks regardless of their fragmentation level.
-- Note: this parameter doesn't affect the MFT optimization task.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

fragmentation_threshold = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Terminate the job when the specified time interval elapses.
-- Example:
--   time_limit = "6h 30m"
-- Keep it empty ("") or set to zero ("0") to let the job complete
-- no matter how long will it take.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

time_limit = ""

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- The progress refresh interval, in milliseconds. The default value is 100.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

refresh_interval = 100

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to 1 (one) to disable generation of the file fragmentation reports.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

disable_reports = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to 1 to simulate the disk processing. No files will get moved
-- physically, but you'll be able to quickly check how various disk
-- processing algorithms work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

dry_run = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to DETAILED for troubleshooting, otherwise keep it empty ("")
-- or set to NORMAL. Note that the detailed logging consumes more time,
-- memory and disk space.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

dbgprint_level = ""

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to redirect debugging output to a log file. Keep it
-- empty ("") if everything works fine and no logging is needed.
-- Examples:
--   log_file_path = "C:\\Windows\\UltraDefrag\\logs\\ultradefrag.log"
--   log_file_path = ".\\logs\\ultradefrag.log"
-- Environment variables can be used as shown below:
--   log_file_path = os.getenv("TEMP") .. "\\UltraDefrag_Logs\\ultradefrag.log"
-- Note:
--   Unicode characters cannot be included into the log file path.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

log_file_path = ".\\logs\\ultradefrag.log"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 2. Windows Explorer's context menu options
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- These options control what happens when you defragment
-- files through their context menu in Windows Explorer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if shellex_flag then
    -- the context menu handler takes into account everything defined above
    -- as well as options defined here exclusively for it
    log_file_path = "C:\\Program Files\\UltraDefrag\\logs\\udefrag-shellex.log"
end

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 3. Graphical interface options
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- These options control look and feel of the graphical interface.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to 1 to minimize the application's window
-- to the taskbar notification area (system tray).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

minimize_to_system_tray = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to 1 to show a taskbar icon overlay on Windows 7 and more recent
-- Windows editions. This overlay will reflect the state of the running job
-- in real time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

show_taskbar_icon_overlay = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to 1 to enable progress indication inside of the taskbar
-- button on Windows 7 and more recent Windows editions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

show_progress_in_taskbar = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to zero if menu icons look untidy on your system.
-- Note: restart the program after adjustment of this parameter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

show_menu_icons = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Size of the cluster map cells, in pixels. The default value is 4.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

map_block_size = 4

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Width of the grid line, in pixels. The default value is 1.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

grid_line_width = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- The grid line color, in RGB format. Black (0;0;0) is used by default,
-- visit http://www.colorpicker.com/ to pick others.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

grid_color_r = 0
grid_color_g = 0
grid_color_b = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- The free space color, in RGB format. White (255;255;255) is used by default,
-- visit http://www.colorpicker.com/ to pick others.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

free_color_r = 255
free_color_g = 255
free_color_b = 255

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- The shutdown confirmation timeout, in seconds. The default value
-- is 60, set it to zero to skip any confirmation. Note: it works
-- the same way when you confirm hibernation, logoff or reboot.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

seconds_for_shutdown_rejection = 60

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- The following option has been retired: restore_default_window_size.
-- Remove the width and height parameters from the {installation folder}\gui.ini
-- file manually to restore the default window size on the next startup.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 4. Automatic defragmentation options
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- These options control automatic defragmentation. Don't modify them
-- directly, open the Settings dialog in UltraDefrag GUI instead,
-- adjust automatic defragmentation options there and then click OK.
-- The program will save the options and generate the auto-defrag.cmd
-- script taking them all into account.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Being set to 1 this option enables automatic defragmentation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

auto_defrag_enabled = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- List of drives to defragment automatically.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

auto_defrag_drives_list = "C"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Being set to 1 this option forces the automatic defragmentation module
-- to use the custom script.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

auto_defrag_use_custom_script = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 5. File fragmentation reports options
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- These options define what happens when you open a file fragmentation
-- report, either from the graphical interface or from Windows Explorer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to zero to disable HTML reports generation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

produce_html_report = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Set it to 1 to enable generation of plain text reports.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

produce_plain_text_report = 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- To adjust style of HTML reports edit the following file:
-- {installation folder}\scripts\udreport.css
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- this number helps to upgrade configuration file correctly, don't change it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

version = 309

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- this code concatenates filter variables, don't modify it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

orig_ex_filter = ex_filter
if exclude_archive ~= 0 then ex_filter = ex_filter .. ";" .. archive_patterns end
if exclude_audio ~= 0 then ex_filter = ex_filter .. ";" .. audio_patterns end
if exclude_disk_image ~= 0 then ex_filter = ex_filter .. ";" .. disk_image_patterns end
if exclude_video ~= 0 then ex_filter = ex_filter .. ";" .. video_patterns end

orig_in_filter = in_filter
if include_archive ~= 0 then in_filter = in_filter .. ";" .. archive_patterns end
if include_audio ~= 0 then in_filter = in_filter .. ";" .. audio_patterns end
if include_disk_image ~= 0 then in_filter = in_filter .. ";" .. disk_image_patterns end
if include_video ~= 0 then in_filter = in_filter .. ";" .. video_patterns end

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- this code sets environment variables for UltraDefrag, don't modify it
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- common variables
os.setenv("UD_ORIG_IN_FILTER",orig_in_filter)
os.setenv("UD_ORIG_EX_FILTER",orig_ex_filter)
os.setenv("UD_EXCLUDE_ARCHIVES",exclude_archive)
os.setenv("UD_EXCLUDE_AUDIO",exclude_audio)
os.setenv("UD_EXCLUDE_VIDEO",exclude_video)
os.setenv("UD_EXCLUDE_DISK_IMAGES",exclude_disk_image)
os.setenv("UD_CLEAN_TEMP_FILES",clean_temp_files)
os.setenv("UD_IN_FILTER",in_filter)
os.setenv("UD_EX_FILTER",ex_filter)
os.setenv("UD_FRAGMENT_SIZE_THRESHOLD",fragment_size_threshold)
os.setenv("UD_FILE_SIZE_THRESHOLD",file_size_threshold)
os.setenv("UD_FRAGMENTS_THRESHOLD",fragments_threshold)
os.setenv("UD_SSD_FRAGMENTS_THRESHOLD",ssd_fragments_threshold)
os.setenv("UD_SORTING",file_sorting_criteria)
os.setenv("UD_SORTING_ORDER",file_sorting_order)
os.setenv("UD_OPTIMIZER_FILE_SIZE_THRESHOLD",optimizer_file_size_threshold)
os.setenv("UD_SSD_DEFRAGMENT_AND_TRIM_ONLY",ssd_defragment_and_trim_only)
os.setenv("UD_DEEP_ACTION",deep_action)
os.setenv("UD_FRAGMENTATION_THRESHOLD",fragmentation_threshold)
os.setenv("UD_TIME_LIMIT",time_limit)
os.setenv("UD_REFRESH_INTERVAL",refresh_interval)
os.setenv("UD_DISABLE_REPORTS",disable_reports)
os.setenv("UD_DBGPRINT_LEVEL",dbgprint_level)
os.setenv("UD_LOG_FILE_PATH",log_file_path)
os.setenv("UD_DRY_RUN",dry_run)

-- GUI specific variables
os.setenv("UD_SECONDS_FOR_SHUTDOWN_REJECTION",seconds_for_shutdown_rejection)
os.setenv("UD_SHOW_MENU_ICONS",show_menu_icons)
os.setenv("UD_SHOW_TASKBAR_ICON_OVERLAY",show_taskbar_icon_overlay)
os.setenv("UD_SHOW_PROGRESS_IN_TASKBAR",show_progress_in_taskbar)
os.setenv("UD_MINIMIZE_TO_SYSTEM_TRAY",minimize_to_system_tray)
os.setenv("UD_MAP_BLOCK_SIZE",map_block_size)
os.setenv("UD_GRID_LINE_WIDTH",grid_line_width)
os.setenv("UD_GRID_COLOR_R",grid_color_r)
os.setenv("UD_GRID_COLOR_G",grid_color_g)
os.setenv("UD_GRID_COLOR_B",grid_color_b)
os.setenv("UD_FREE_COLOR_R",free_color_r)
os.setenv("UD_FREE_COLOR_G",free_color_g)
os.setenv("UD_FREE_COLOR_B",free_color_b)

-- automatic defragmentation specific variables
os.setenv("UD_AUTO_DEFRAG_ENABLED",auto_defrag_enabled)
os.setenv("UD_AUTO_DEFRAG_DRIVES_LIST",auto_defrag_drives_list)
os.setenv("UD_AUTO_DEFRAG_USE_CUSTOM_SCRIPT",auto_defrag_use_custom_script)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- END OF FILE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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