Try&Decide: Why doesn't it disable the defrag API?
I've used Returnil (free). When its virtual mode is active, defragmenters will error because the defrag API isn't available. This is how Returnil prevents running a defragmenter when its virtual mode is active. Yet Acronis simply "recommends" that I not defrag when Try&Decide is active. Can't it do what other do which is to ensure that defraggers won't run? I'm sure there are some defraggers that may not use the Windows defrag API but everyone that I've used or trialed and claimed it was safe used the Windows defrag API. They have their own algorithms for how the software author believes is the best method to arrange files, provide multiple options for users to alter the default algorithms, add info to the GUI, but they still use the Windows defragmentation API to do the actual cluster moving.
If Returnil can disable defraggers from running when its virtual mode is active, why can't Acronis do the same when its Try&Decide is active? Rather than hope users don't run defraggers in Try&Decide mode, and if it really is a bad thing to do in virtual mode, then Try&Decide should make sure that action cannot be executed. Users shouldn't have to go into the defragger to reconfigure it to not run at a scheduled time or go into Task Scheduler to disable any defrag task, use virtual mode, and then have to undo all those changes afterward. Besides disabled the defrag API in virtual mode, Returnil also disables the use of TRIM on SSD drives. This isn't a new self-protection feature of Returnil. It's been there for years.
Since Try&Decide comes with ATI2012, well, there's no point in duplicating similar software. Also, Acronis now brings out Try&Decide as a command line option (via a shortcut) so I don't have to load ATI's GUI and wade through it to activate Try&Decide. I could put a shortcut in a toolbar in the Windows taskbar (e.g., QuickLaunch or my own toolbar) and just click it when I want to enable it. But I don't want to be disabling scheduled defrags and then reenabling them afterward because Acronis doesn't prevent what it recommends against.