prefetch question, let's try again

[dave]

There are some old files in my prefetch. The oldest is 11/14/03. From what
has been posted here, I thought that every 3 days, the old files in prefetch
were deleted and prefetch was rebuilt with the newly accessed programs. I
can see that the programs that I use every day have the current date.
Yesterday's date is replaced with today's date. It is just the programs
that I am not using that are still there with the date that they were last
accessed.

"Stop using task scheduler" in scheduled tasks/advanced is unchecked and the
EnablePrefetcher dword in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryMan
agement\PrefetchParameters is 3. Is this correct or is there something else
that needs to be fixed or changed?

David

 

[Wesley Vogel]

dave;
It's every three boots, not days. Even though that is
the info that's bandied about. )
The Registry setting is OK.

Start | Run | Type: services.msc | OK
Scroll down to and double click Task Scheduler |
Is it started?
Is it set to Automatic?

Post back.

 

[dave]

Wes,

Thanks for the answer. Yes Task Scheduler is started and set to Automatic.
I have had more than 3 boots since 11/14/03 and have left the computer in
idle a number of time for over 15 minutes.

David

 

[Incognitus]

I keep an eye, almost daily, on the prefetch folder. I can't tell you how
it's supposed to work, but I can tell you how it works here.

I boot daily, I watch for defrag.exe and dfrgfat.exe, example: they both
last ran Jan 13 2004 at 2:54 pm, today, being the 16th, they will most
likely run around 10 to 12 minutes after 2:54pm, I've watched this many
times and often been able to predict, within a few minutes, when it will run
again.

As far as the oldest dated file is concerned, it's been my experience that
the oldest are removed anywhere from a month to six weeks.

If I were you, I'd just watch and observe the prefetch folder and I think
you will see that the file dated 11/14/03 will be removed, if not you can
always delete the contents of the prefetch folder and it will be rebuilt,
but I suggest leaving it alone and let XP handle things.

 

[mikey]

just delete the contents of the prefetch folder reboot the computer and get on with your life.

if this is the only thing you find that occasionally does not work in XP consider yourself lucky.



(e-mail address removed)



There are some old files in my prefetch. The oldest is 11/14/03. From what
has been posted here, I thought that every 3 days, the old files in prefetch
were deleted and prefetch was rebuilt with the newly accessed programs. I
can see that the programs that I use every day have the current date.
Yesterday's date is replaced with today's date. It is just the programs
that I am not using that are still there with the date that they were last
accessed.

"Stop using task scheduler" in scheduled tasks/advanced is unchecked and the
EnablePrefetcher dword in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryMan
agement\PrefetchParameters is 3. Is this correct or is there something else
that needs to be fixed or changed?

David

 

[dave]

Thanks for the info. Those files last ran on my computer on 1/13/04 at 6:49
pm. I will look at it tonight.

I know that I can delete the old files but I thought I would see how long it
takes for the program to do it. I do let winxp manage the prefetch folder
and can see that files older than 11/14/03 were deleted. The reason for my
post is that I thought 9 weeks was a long time based on other posts that I
saw and wondered about it and how the program works.

David

 

[Alex Nichol]

There are some old files in my prefetch. The oldest is 11/14/03. From what
has been posted here, I thought that every 3 days, the old files in prefetch
were deleted and prefetch was rebuilt with the newly accessed programs.

Those relating to a given program might be older than 3 days if the
program has not been run, but they should be dropped after a period -
normally a week , but certainly shorter than the two months you are
seeing. I'd delete anything that does not have a .pf extension (apart
from the layout file) and any .pf older than perhaps 10 days

 

[Wesley Vogel]

David;
Not much I can add to any of the other posts. )
You can, however, force a boot optimization by
entering the following command (in the command prompt window):

defrag c: -boot