have ALWAYS turned off prefetch, it is a poor atempt to get around poorly written bloated code.
it has probloems and always has had.
if you have never tried it, but only wish to belive ms kissups.
then please do. but do not try to force others to wear your blinders.
deleting the contents of the prefetch folder is NON_DESTRUCTIVE and in most cases helpful in speeding up booting and running.
many many people who have deleted the contents of the prefetch folder had indeed reported faster response and booting.
one of the biggest flaws is NOT removing entries when the program(s) are uninstalled. the auto timed removal does nto work either.
this causes the system to spend a lot of time trying to find and deal with an uninstalled program.
(e-mail address removed)
Try spending a little time reading the following & Malke did offer
valid, technically correct information
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html
**Look under Optimization Tweaks
If you really want to test the effectiveness of Prefetching - turn it
off via the Registry key and use a data scrambling program to
fragment your drive (removes prefetch placement) Defrag without
Layout.Ini and then re-time the boot sequence.
try again.
deleting the contents of the prefetch does indeed speed up the booting
process.
there are lots of usless garbage kept there and the computer is busy chasing
its tail trying to find all the program that have been uninstalled but not
removed from the prefetch folder.
even works in VISTA. m\boiot time can be cut to 1/3 by deleting prefetch
data.
u wannt be a microsoft kissup, better try better than quoting OLD useless
data.
(e-mail address removed)
mikeyhsd said:
delete the contents of the PREFETCh folder and reboot.
just the contents not the folder.
its under WINDOWS folder.
\windows\prefetch
I have a relatively new Dell
laptop that takes several minutes from the time the wallpaper shows up
till the time all my icons show up & I can start using the computer.
I've timed this at 2 minutes & longer at times.
This wasn't always like this & has just started recently.
Any suggestions on speeding up the boot process?
Deleting the contents of Prefetch will not speed up the bootup process. If
anything, it will temporarily slow down the computer until the folder is
repopulated. Here is an explanation of the Prefetch folder:
The files in the Prefetch folder are data files related to enhancing the
speed at which applications start. Windows XP Professional monitors the
files that are used when the computer starts and when you start
applications. By monitoring these files, Windows XP Professional can
prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is
expected to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot
files and applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP
Professional and start applications.
To decrease startup time, decrease the number of third-party
programs/processes that start with Windows.
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560
If you are using any Norton or McAfee antivirus/security products, replace
them with a better, less-bloated and invasive av like Kaspersky, NOD32,
F-Prot, or even AVG or Avast.
Malke
