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How do I remove running programs to accomplish a defrag?

My PC has Windows 98 as the operating system with a defragmenter installed. I am sure the hard drive is in dire need of a defragmentation. I have never been able to accomplish this because the process is constantly interrupted -- allegedly by programs running/writing on the hard disk at the same time.

I get a message that all running programs should be shut off. I am scared to attempt this because I don't know how to identify every program that is running and then remove them using the "ADD/REMOVE" programs function. Can you help?
You do not need to actually uninstall the programs to run a defragmentation. You are misinterpreting the error message.

You should just close them before starting the defragger. Many applications lock files, which cannot be accessed by the Win98 defragger. Uninstalling does not make any sense -- just close them down and restart them afterwards!

This was first published in September 2002

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