XP-PRO:Prefetch Files

[Moto Guzzi]

Deleting the Prefetch files from time to time, I mean every month or 2-months, not every reboot.

Does anybody has a standpoint on this ?

How important is the "NTOSBOOT-BOODFAAD.PF" file ? If I reboot, this is the only one used on reboot to Welcome screen.

 

[Sniper_Merc]

Deleting the Prefetch files from time to time, I mean every month or 2-months, not every reboot.

Does anybody has a standpoint on this ?

How important is the "NTOSBOOT-BOODFAAD.PF" file ? If I reboot, this is the only one used on reboot to Welcome screen.

Windows XP Prefetch Clean And Control 1.2.0

Tool for flushing the Prefetch log and controlling the Prefetch Parameters.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2495

 

[Moto Guzzi]

Thanks

 

[stevewm]

Please, leave your PreFetch settings alone. XP is set by default to prefetch boot and application startup, no addtional programs required to enable it.


Anyways...

By deleting your PreFetch folder you delete some of the information XP uses to provide fast boot times. You may notice a slightly slower boot after deleting this folder. XP will replace the files in the next few boots. Same goes for application launching.

Personally, I would only both deleting it if you install/uninstall a lot of apps all at once. Otherwise its worthless to clear the folder out.

 

[Sniper_Merc]

Thanks

YW

 

[Sniper_Merc]

Please, leave your PreFetch settings alone. XP is set by default to prefetch boot and application startup, no addtional programs required to enable it.


Anyways...

By deleting your PreFetch folder you delete some of the information XP uses to provide fast boot times. You may notice a slightly slower boot after deleting this folder. XP will replace the files in the next few boots. Same goes for application launching.

Personally, I would only both deleting it if you install/uninstall a lot of apps all at once. Otherwise its worthless to clear the folder out.

Umm I think you better rethink that.

The prefetching occurs during the boot sequence for the program referances, you can use the Boot Vis tool to watch the boot sequence, you will notice far longer boot times with it on than off.

The above is in referance to the program prefetching, however XP does do boot sequence prefetching as well, IMHO it isn't worth bothering with it, the gains are insignificant.

Also the above referanced program lets you choose to leave on boot sequence prefetching, but also shut off program prefetching, which is the major slowdown during boot sequence.

I have seen systems that have not had there prefetch folders cleared out for a year and watched it take them as long as 5 minutes to boot into XP, my system with both types of prefetching disabled and running R2 Studio's boot delay program takes about a min and 30 seconds. I run the boot delay due to the proggies I have running on startup, XP likes to get confused and not put the tray icons in systray.

 

[GreNME]

Umm I think you better rethink that.

I think you had better rethink that. The few seconds (tops) that you may lag actually going from cold to logged in means nothing—you can't do anything but log on during this time anyway. However, what those prefetch files do is give the OS reference points from which to (far) more quickly start and load apps. The times may vary, both form the program size (taken up in the memory) and the other files it has to open up (*.DLLs and other sundry files). The prefetch is saving your OS load times, far more than you would save from a few measely seconds during boot-up.

That said, going in and deleting prefetch files occasionally will not hurt your system. There can, at times, be prefetch files for programs you have not used in a while, and these may or may not be expendable. So, you're most likely not hurting anything by going in and removing the prefetch files every couple/few months.

 

[Moto Guzzi]

Well, thanks again then...

By deleting your PreFetch folder you delete some of the information XP uses to provide fast boot times. You may notice a slightly slower boot after deleting this folder. XP will replace the files in the next few boots. Same goes for application launching

Very true..This is exactly what I experienced. Actually I indeed leave them alone, unless I experience problems like when I upgraded to Norton 2004 products with older Nvidia grafics driver stll in tact... Strange things happened/various error messages with this combination. I must say, re-formatting flashed about 5x times through my chicken brain at this stage, but I refrained.
Via Eventviewer clues I end up upgrading the grafics driver, deleting the pagefile, deleting the prefetch files, and got everything working perfectly again.

I also experienced something else deleting the prefetch files, and that is it mess up System Restore somewhat, so you must disable/enable it again, as well as the Welcome screen scrollbar is visibly missing after bootup, but of course only noticible if you have say more than 6 users..I got 8.

The reason I ask this, was to get more perspective/ clarity on the prefetch story.

I nursed my PC through it's ills for more than 3x years without reformat, or repair.

You just need to investigate/trace every problem, and I am not Einstein either.
I must say Norton Gost is very handy, cloning disk drives.