There are many actions one can do to their PC every so often to keep it in good shape, running smoothly, and not being crammed with crap you don’t need. One of these actions is to clean your prefetch. Look in C:/Windows/Prefetch. You will find files in there for all the applications you run on your PC. Basically, what this is is a little cache for your software. Windows will monitor your activity and “prefetch” data, thereby speeding up the operation for you. It consists of information Windows think your programs are going to request. Over time, though, some of the files in your prefetch folder might correspond to software you don’t even use anymore. Its safe to wipe these prefetch files out. Just clear the entire folder out. Those applications you use frequently will simply restore their prefetch files next time you launch them, so there is no harm done. And it will clear up disk space.
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Yet another uninformed prefetch article.
Do not do as thia author suggests, he clearly does not understand how prefetch works. Prefetch files are used to optimize both boot and application launch times. Application prefetch files are referenced only after application launch has been initiated, NOT at bootup. Unused or rarely used entries will not be referenced and will have virtually no inpact on performance, even if in large numbers. Manual deletion of these files will deprive Windows of a valuable resource and has no benefits. In any event the folder is self cleaning after 128 entries. All of this has been extensively tested.
Prefetch requires the Task Scheduler Service be enabled and set to Automatic. If it is not prefetch will be crippled, leading to impaired performance.
References:
http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/XPMyths.html
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000024.html
http://blogs.msdn.com/ryanmy/archive/2005/05/25/421882.aspx
Larry Miller
Microsoft MCSA