Windows 7's performance issues on SSDs stem from outdated drivers and software limitations.
Windows 7's performance issues on SSDs stem from outdated drivers and software limitations.
The article doesn't mention the defrag tool doing anything beyond defragmenting volumes. It notes that Windows 8 renamed it to "Optimize Drives," indicating a broader storage optimization role. The discussion around SSD support in Windows 7 is acknowledged as valid, but the claim about the utility's purpose remains unsubstantiated.
Win7 TRIM operates quietly in the background. When you launch defrag and attempt to TRIM a SSD, it will respond as if defrag is needed instead. Rather than trusting online advice, try installing Win7 on an SSD yourself and see how it performs. On a SSD paired with Win7, the first step is to turn off schedule defrag. Previously, Windows 8 started suggesting TRIM for SSDs and Defrag for HDDs. In Windows 10, the SSD will prompt to optimize the drive, but during optimization it may say TRIM.
I'm a little worried that I've already derailed this discussion too far and that it might not be worth replying further, because it's almost as if you didn't read a word I wrote. I agree with you so far. Yes, but the post I linked to does not make any assurances that the disk defragmenter utility in Windows 7 will TRIM an SSD, neither does the utility itself, as far as I recall. It's a defragmenter; it defragments. It was not updated (as far as I understand) to do anything SSD specific until Windows 8. In other words, if you have Windows 7 on an SSD, you are not supposed to run the disk defragmenter utility on it at all (except to defragment volumes on traditional hard drives, etc.). It's not a question of me "believing some blog post". I don't think you and I actually disagree about the way Windows 7 behaves here; what we appear to disagree on is what Microsoft's intent was. I fully accept that the defrag utility does not TRIM SSDs in Windows 7. What I'm saying is that Neither the blog post that I linked to nor the utility itself makes any promises to the contrary; and that Even if it did make such promises, that doesn't change the fact that SSDs did exist during Windows 7's development and that the Windows 7 team did make an effort to support them natively.
I've mentioned this repeatedly. The Win7 defragmentation utility doesn't remove space on an SSD.