Applog Tip

[TwoRails]

Here's a nice little article that some may find useful: (It's a cut-n-paste, so the formatting is screwy, but here's the Link. TwoRails
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November 27, 2001
The Applog Folder

By Neil J. Rubenking

There are over 9MB in the C:\Windows\applog folder. What is this? Can it safely be deleted?

Philip S. Johnson

In Windows 98 and Windows Me, the Task Monitor tracks which programs are launched and how they load from disk, and it records the info in the Applog folder. The Defrag utility then uses this info to provide special optimization for the program files you use most often. Rather than rearranging the clusters of these files in sequential order, Defrag rearranges them in the order they're loaded when the program launches.

More on the Applog Folder

This specialized processing reduces the time required to launch certain programs, but you may prefer to trade that speed for disk space. You're perfectly free to delete the entire contents of this folder, but Task Monitor will start refilling the folder right away. To prevent this, you need to tweak a Registry setting. Launch Regedit from the Start menu's Run dialog and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Applets\Defrag\AppStartParams. In the right-hand pane, find or create a DWORD value named UseProfile, and set its value to 0. For more information, see the Microsoft TechNet article: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/Win...rt2/wrkc10.asp

[glc]

You will also find that defrag will take a lot less time if you do this.

[David_Jones]

Won't applications take longer to load though?

Is the trade off worth it in your opinion?

Thanks,

David.

[TwoRails]

Good question, David_Jones! I've never tried it, so it would be a WAG on my part, but I'd have to say, no. But there are a lot of variables that would make a difference.

I've always used multi-partitions since the days of DOS, so when I defrag, only those specific drives get defraged as needed. In other words, if I don't do any letter writing, then my "word processor" drive doesn't get defraged.

Also, if you clear it out, your drive(s) are already sorted in order of the last applog, and (I would imagine) don't get moved on a fresh defrag as there is no information to change them.

And, of course, it would depend on the utility you used to do the defragging.

TwoRails

[David_Jones]

Fair comments TwoRails.

I guess in some respects, the worst thing might be to remove the log (thereby resetting the stats), but keep it running and in use by (MS) defrag.

That way, defrag would re-arrange based on short term usage, not the average, accumulated info that was there before.

On the other hand, if you take over a PC from someone else, perhaps it is a great idea, so that your own usage patterns are reflected.

I wonder if the applog is cleared of entried more than, say, 99 days old to keep the pattern 'current'?

David.

[mike breck]

You can also disable Taskmon in MSCONFIG.

I use Norton Speed Disk so I don't use Windows defrag/optimisation.

[TwoRails]

Originally posted by David_Jones I wonder if the applog is cleared of entried more than, say, 99 days old to keep the pattern 'current'?

Well, like mike breck, I use Norton. And, as he suggests, I simple have it turned off. But, just for giggles, I looked in that directory (as I haven't done so in a while) and the entries are from late 2000 to middle 2001....

I guess I forgot to delete the folder the last time I turned it off, but the dates range from 9.11.00 to 5.30.01 so that would indicate that the data is kept longer than a month or 3.

TwoRails

[David_Jones]

Good point - I could have done that for myself!

Thanks,

David.

[TwoRails]

They just added a "part II" on the Applog tip:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,843970,00.asp

TwoRails