EnablePrefetcher registry setting

[Guest]

Hi. I've been seeing this around the Web recently, that
setting (registry) EnablePrefetcher = 5 will increase boot
time considerably, depending on machine. But, the only
settings I've seen 'valid' are 3 states: 1, 2, 3 (0 to
disable Prefetcher component).

Is there any truth to the '5' claim? Is there any
MS 'official' documentation about it?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[David Jones]

The MS official documentation (available by searching for
prefetch and prefetcher on http://msdn.microsoft.com and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet) talk about the same
0,1,2,3, and I'd say there's no evidence that "5" does
anything any different from one of the 4 states.

It's probably one of the (many) performance myths around.

 

[Wesley VogelX]

This is a unique technique for XP, which could improve the performance
significantly by tweaking the prefetcher (which is a cache folder).

1. run "regedit";
2. goto
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher];
3. Set the value to either 0-Disable, 1-App launch prefetch, 2-Boot Prefetch,
3-Both ("3" is recommended).
4. reboot.

It should decrease the boot time and the time it takes to load programs.

 

[Wesley VogelX]

I did find this @ http://www.winxpnews.com/

How to Speed up XP Startup

One of the advantages of Windows XP over older Microsoft operating systems is
the speed with
which the operating system starts, but if you'd like to see even better startup
performance, you can
try this tip shared with us by reader Daniel S.:

Click Start | Run and type regedit to open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to
HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management\PrefetchParameters

In the right pane, right click EnablePrefetcher and select Modify.
Under Value data, change the value from 3 (the default) to 5.
Reboot and watch XP fly.
===
I have not tried it.

 

[yodasue]

This very issue is discussed in this weeks winxpnews.com this week!
Check it out!