Problems with Windows Prefetch

[Jared]

Hey guys!

I have cleared _whole_ %SystemRoot%\prefetch\ folder and now it is empty
(there was a .ini file, which I saved just for in case - I deleted it from
Prefetch folder also).

System is booting faster indeed, however after login, when I have my desktop
shown, HD is working even for a minute, or more - of course I can do nothing
fast then; more, I would say it is now worse than it was before with
performance.

My question: how long is to take for Prefetch to fill itself with commonly
used data? I would like to see there "services.exe", "svchost.exe",
"winlogon.exe", etc. OR I have corrupted something by deleting whole folder
and now I must do something to recreate it? What to do?

Thanks in advance
Jared

 

[Nick Burns]

Hey guys!

I have cleared _whole_ %SystemRoot%\prefetch\ folder and now it is empty
(there was a .ini file, which I saved just for in case - I deleted it from
Prefetch folder also).

System is booting faster indeed, however after login, when I have my desktop
shown, HD is working even for a minute, or more - of course I can do nothing
fast then; more, I would say it is now worse than it was before with
performance.

My question: how long is to take for Prefetch to fill itself with commonly
used data? I would like to see there "services.exe", "svchost.exe",
"winlogon.exe", etc. OR I have corrupted something by deleting whole folder
and now I must do something to recreate it? What to do?

Thanks in advance
Jared

I believe it will rebuild itself after about 3 boots. You could run chkdsk
as this will build the prefetch folder. With a empty prefetch folder I never
have any errors or any noticeable proformance hits.

 

[Jared]

I believe it will rebuild itself after about 3 boots. You could run chkdsk
as this will build the prefetch folder. With a empty prefetch folder I never
have any errors or any noticeable proformance hits.

Thank you! I'm running chkdsk right now...
Best
Jared

 

[mrtee]

The prefetch folder rebuilds itself every three (3) days. My prefetch folder has NEVER gone over 130 entries. Leave it alone, it takes care of itself.

--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________

|
| Thank you! I'm running chkdsk right now...
| Best
| Jared
|
|

 

[Alex Nichol]

System is booting faster indeed, however after login, when I have my desktop
shown, HD is working even for a minute, or more - of course I can do nothing
fast then; more, I would say it is now worse than it was before with
performance.

My question: how long is to take for Prefetch to fill itself with commonly
used data? I would like to see there "services.exe", "svchost.exe",
"winlogon.exe", etc. OR I have corrupted something by deleting whole folder
and now I must do something to recreate it? What to do?

The folder keeps records of the pattern of load of programs, and of the
system booting. Two things follow:

One, next time you load a program, the system can set out to get all the
files needed, without waiting to be asked

Two, every three days or so, in a quiet moment it does a degree of
rearrangement so as to get files placed where they will load fastest, in
the overall balance of boot and recently used programs.

If you have deleted the content, wait a few days and the folder will
have been re-populated with data about programs you are actively using,
and done at least an initial rearrangement.

Files get dropped if a program does not get used, so the folder is best
left alone. Apart from checking for any plain .exe rather than
legitimate whatever.exe-nnnnnn.pf files - it looks as if some
spyware/trojans are making it their home