...windows\prefetch

[mini]

Hi guys,

can someone explain what the files in this directory do? more to the point perhaps - if I delete some or all of them will it increase boot-up speed?

Thanks

[rotorcraig]

NB posts below which point out that this isn't great advice!

Try this article - Gaining Speed: Empty Prefetch on your XP System (http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Gaining-Speed-Empty-Prefetch-XP.html)

A little known tweak that can help you gain some performance on your XP Professional (and Windows Server 2003) related systems is to periodically empty the prefetch folder. The prefetch folder is used to help speed up the loading of programs; XP will load programs it thinks you need before you ask for them yourself.

Since applications are nothing other than data (files, folders which make up the programs), they are susceptible to the same form of punishment all other data on your system is open to… defragmentation, as well as just residing on your hard disk, if needed, the program must be called from the disk and loaded into memory. If XP (or 2003) tries to prefetch applications you don’t regularly use, then you may be wasting memory. In this article, we look at how to speed up performance by emptying the little known prefetch folder and allowing XP to start the prefetch determination and archiving process over again.

Article continues with info on how to clear down prefetch, and optimise going forward.

RC

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

...or you could consider this viewpoint:

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000743.html

I've seen this whole subject described as Prefetch Wars, so vociferous are the opposing views sometimes.

[Mac the Knife]

......if I delete some or all of them will it increase boot-up speed?

No. See the article quoted by BSK above.

Windows prefetch is quite clever and sorts itself out without your assistance.

Leave it alone.

:ok:

[rotorcraig]

Thanks for the counter advice guys, think you're right!

My original post updated.

RC

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

http://forum.ccleaner.com/style_images/4/bf_new.gif

As a postscript to above, suggest the many CCleaner fans here (myself included) might like to take a look at...
THIS (http://poptech.********.com/2005/10/ccleaner-cripples-application-load.html)

[mini]

Once more the inner workings of this machine in front of me are not as simple as they may at first appear...

I will leave well enough alone. Thanks to all for the advice. :ok:

[born2fly_au]

I was reading an article on the Techrepublic website about prefetch and this was mentioned.
Modifying and disabling Prefetch settings
As with most Windows XP-related things, you can change the way that Prefetch behaves by making a change in the registry. For low-memory systems, you can even completely disable the feature, which ensures that every last byte of RAM goes toward running current programs, not the ones XP guesses you'll need next.

To change the registry settings for prefetching, start the Registry Editor by selecting Run from the Start menu, typing regedit in the Open text box, and clicking OK. When the Registry Editor window opens, navigate through the left pane until you get to this hive:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

In the right pane, look for the key named EnablePrefetcher. The value of this key represents how prefetch works on your system. Values you can choose from include:

0—Disable
1—Application Launch Prefetch
2—Boot Prefetch
3—Prefetch everything
To change the value, double-click it. You'll then see the Edit DWORD Value screen. Enter the value representing the level of prefetching you want in the Value Data field.

As a general rule, if you're on a low-memory workstation, 128 MB or so, set the value to 0. If your workstation has 512 MB of RAM or more, set it to 3. Otherwise, you can choose the value as best suits your needs and observations

This Was only a small part of the article on Use XPs Prefetch feature to improve system performance. http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6247-0.html?forumID=12&threadID=149720&start=0
Hope it helps Allen