I'd say he's probably right but I doubt it makes a real difference. Under Win98, the defragger offered an option to optimize the programs you ran most frequently. Windows monitored program useage and maintained a folder called applog. My understanding is that Defrag referenced data in applog to move the most frequently used apps to the fastest part of the disk, usually at the beginning. I did some research and I find no reference to this process for the newer OS versions 200/XP/Vista. Maybe it's just automatic now or quite possibly they decided it didn't improve things enough to be worthwhile. With faster drives etc., I doubt you'ld notice a differnce. I'd be more concerned about where my data files resided that the applications themselves. All in all, it's probably one of those things that was true at one time but been bypassed by technology.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken