Prefetch

Question

Hi, I have been noticing that things are moving a little slower latley. I was reading Kellys Corner win-a-z and saw the mention of occasionaly clearing out the prefetch files to increase performance. He mentions deleting the files but does not elaborate. Do I delete the layout .ini file or the other files, or all. There are 75 files in pf but the layout .ini file has 300-400 entries in it. Also in doing so will the things that are supposed to be loaded at start up such as norton and zone alarm automatically be put back in the prefetch folder without any input from me? I have done the usual matinence on the computer-check disk, defrag,spyware scans,av scans. I only have 4 things in msconfig start up checked. Thank you for any input on this.     Dell Dimension 2350 ,2gig p4,768mb ram, 60gb hardrive, sp2,windows xp home,Spyware blaster,Norton av,zone alarm,adaware,spybot sd.

Denny Denham · Answer

HiGhLaNdEr48, The article here applies.

dave51_2fe887 · Answer

Hi Highlander48,  I use CCleaner. It will clean old prefetch and alot more. http://www.ccleaner.com/

HiGhLaNdEr48 · Answer

Denny, thank you for the link.I will leave it be.   Dell Dimension 2350 ,2gig p4,768mb ram, 60gb hardrive, sp2,windows xp home,Spyware blaster,Norton av,zone alarm,adaware,spybot sd.

HiGhLaNdEr48 · Answer

Thanks dave5 I have been looking at ccleaner for a while for other things beside the prefetch issue. I will do much more digging before I delete the prefetch though. Again thanks for the input.

Dell Dimension 2350 ,2gig p4,768mb ram, 60gb hardrive, sp2,windows xp home,Spyware blaster,Norton av,zone alarm,adaware,spybot sd.

JRosenfeld · Answer

Provided that you have default settings, the prefetch folder will clear out old unneeded files and rebuild itself every few days, when the PC is left idle for some time (~20 minutes or so, for example if you leave it alone with no apps open while having a meal). In mine, it happened to do so yesterday or today and there is nothing with a date modified prior to 11/09. The 54 items remaining relate to apps and services that I have used since then. This way it optimises your system operation, including boot, according to your usage pattern over the past few days. Message Edited by JRosenfeld on 09-14-2005 12:31 AM

Windows General

Prefetch

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