Directories in XP

[JoeW]

Windows\Downloaded Program Files
Windows\System32\Prefetch

What are these two directories used for? Do they contain
programs that can be deleted? Are they critical to the
operation of XP? I ran accorss the Downloaded Program
Files when I was trying to remove all clutter files
(temps, etc.) from my system.

 

[David Candy]

Delete anything you want in DPF. It will redownload if needed.

Prefetch looks after itself. You can delete but it will all come back so there's no point.

 

[David Candy]

Delete anything you want in DPF. It will redownload if needed.

Prefetch looks after itself. You can delete but it will all come back so there's no point.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Joe.

I'm not sure about Downloaded Program Files. (I have about 13 MB in mine.)
Google gets 21 hits in the Microsoft Knowledge Base on ""Downloaded Program
Files"+xp". Including this one:
Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312

The Prefetch folder is not critical - but it helps. As we use our
computers, WinXP figures out the best way to load each of our applications.
Information about this is stored in Prefetch and is used to speed up later
uses of those applications. This information is kept for only a week or so
and then discarded if not replaced already by later uses of the same
applications.

You can delete Prefetch. WinXP will rebuild it.

Google finds over 14,000 hits on "prefetch + xp" (but, surprisingly, none in
the MS KB, although there are several for Prefetch and Win98).

RC

 

[Alex Nichol]

Windows\Downloaded Program Files
Windows\System32\Prefetch

What are these two directories used for? Do they contain
programs that can be deleted?

 

[R. McCarty]

No - Leave them alone

Downloaded - Stores ActiveX components, Like Shockwave, & on
line Virus scanner code,etc.

Prefetch - Stores Layout.ini and the .Pf modules that are created when
programs launch. This is a self-maintaining folder.
Disregard
advice that purging/cleaning it out makes Windows run
better.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Windows\Downloaded Program Files
Windows\System32\Prefetch

What are these two directories used for? Do they contain
programs that can be deleted?

Downloaded Program files contains inf files and ActiveX controls put
there in the course of installing programs. It is not very big and I
would leave it alone; trying to remove items from it in explorer appears
to generate attempts to uninstall the programs, though you could
probably delete them from a Command Prompt using a del commend there
without harm. If you want to try that I would first copy the entire
content of it to another ordinary folder - apart from the hidden
desktop.ini - before deleting them

Prefetch contains records, updated when programs load, of the pattern of
files accessed during the load. This means that next time the system
can go ahead and get them immediately, without waiting to be asked, thus
speeding the load. Also they are then used every three days in a 'mini
defrag' type of operation that rearranges files on the disk so as to
optimise the speed of loading of the most frequently used programs (and
of the ones used when the system boots). If a program is not used for a
week or so its record gets dropped, so there is no benefit in regularly
emptying the folder as you sometimes see suggested.