Diskeeper® 2008 Home Edition Technical Specifications
File system support: Diskeeper® supports the Microsoft® NTFS (New Technology File System), FAT16 (File Allocation Table) and FAT32 file system formats.
Operating system support:
Windows® XP Home
Windows XP Tablet PC
Windows XP Media Center
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows XP Professional
Hardware support:
Diskeeper runs on the Intel® x86 platforms (including compatible CPUs from other manufacturers).
Functional limits:
Maximum supported volume size: 768GB
Disk subsystems supported:
Primary Partitions
Extended Partitions
Logical Drives
Volume Sets
RAID Arrays (hardware and software)
Mirrored Disks
Mounted Volumes (letterless drives)
Resource requirements:
The disk space requirements for Diskeeper depend on several factors. On Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Windows 2000 systems, Diskeeper will need about 11 MB. Allow about 10 MB of extra free space for temporary files during the installation. If Internet Explorer® is not present on your computer, some other needed files (hhupd.exe, 50comupd.exe, and wintdist.exe) may be added. Further, your system may require a new or updated version of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which is less than 6 MB.
Additional software requirements:
Diskeeper relies on the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The MMC provides a single point of control for system utilities such as Diskeeper. The MMC is used as a central location for a variety of Microsoft and third party administrative tools.
A note about firewalls:
As a normal part of its operation, the Diskeeper Service (DkService.exe) acts as a server on your system. If you are running a hardware or software firewall, you may see messages indicating Diskeeper Service is trying to act as a server. These messages are expected; you can safely allow these events.
You may also be notified that Diskeeper is trying to access the Internet. It is important to note that Diskeeper does not access the Internet (except when you specifically use the Check for Updates feature), but it does use Windows mechanisms that may trigger these alerts from your firewall. Again, these messages are expected and you can safely allow the events. If networkability or automatic update checking is not required, you can safely disable this.
More Detail on DKService.exe:
The DKService.exe windows service is vital as it handles inter-component communications. It also addresses external communications (such as checking for product updates or transmitting report data to a Diskeeper Administrator console). The Diskeeper Service is set by default to "start" when the system boots up. By default, Diskeeper is also set to log actions of this service in the Windows Application Event Log.
The preferred interface is up to the user. The GUI supports all Diskeeper defrag operations and options and can additionally be added to custom MMC's by running the MMC Add/Remove Snap-in wizard. The CLI allows for defragmentation schedule integration into existing batch jobs or scripts.
The defrag engines are of course vital to the actual job of file defragmentation. You'll note that they will operate at the processor execution priority you specify in the product's graphical user interface. Depending on the version and edition of Diskeeper, the number of participating engines will vary.
Users in network environments with local firewalls who wish to defrag using Diskeeper's full management functionality of Diskeeper Administrator should allow DkService.exe to act as a "Server". Though not recommended, the DkService.exe can be terminated when Diskeeper is not in use. This will prevent the product from running. You will need to restart the service to run defragmentation.
On a related note, DkService.exe is not malware/spyware. Advanced anti-spyware utilities properly recognize this.
For answer to more technical questions, visit the Diskeeper FAQ's.
Operating Systems Supported
Support 32 bit only
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista
Home Premium
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows XP Home
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP Tablet PC
Windows XP Media Center
Windows 2000 Professional
Tech Spotlight: Diskeeper Architecture - What is DKService.exe?
Diskeeper automatic defrag software can be said to be composed of three major components. Those components are:
1) DKService.exe, which is a Windows Service responsible for managing schedules and product communications.
2) A user interface that supports user configuration. It comes in two forms:
a) A graphical user interface (GUI) that is designed as a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in (Diskeeper.msc ).
b) A command line interface (CLI) named Diskeeper.exe.
3) The Defrag engines (using names such as DfrgNTFS.exe and similar) are the processes that do the actual defragmentation.
These three components are vital to supporting the full defrag functionality of the Diskeeper product.