Crap Cleaner (aka CCleaner) versus XP Prefetch

Discussion in 'Software' started by bigbazza, Oct 3, 2005.

  1. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Look at todays "News" link on www.majorgeeks.com, or go to
    http://www.populartechnology.net/ for an interesting article on CCleaner versus XP Prefetch.

    You may, or may not, agree with the article's findings, but it makes good reading.

    Do you regularly clean Prefetch manually?
    Do you never clean Prefetch?
    Did you even know Prefetch existed?
    Do you allow CCleaner to do it?
    Does cleaning Prefetch increase loading times by up to 100%? In your experience?

    PS: Coincidentially, in today's list of programs, there is a new version of CCleaner just released. I haven't installed it yet. It will be interesting to see if the Prefetch default is gone. Bazza
     
  2. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Looks like the "Prefetch option" has gone, in the latest version (1.24.180). Bazza
     
  3. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

  4. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

  5. Franklin

    Franklin Corporal

    Just downloaded the latest Ccleaner and old prefetch data is still there.I leave it unticked.
     
  6. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    I dont think it will matter whether you do it or not. Im not an authority, but my reading tells me that its a dead end tweak. I dont have a single app that takes 10 seconds to load, so I cant confirm or deny. That said, CCLeaner is still the ultimate freeware drive cleaning program, so if your unsure, skip this option. FYI, I posted that news link not because I knew it was right, but to inform people who might be unaware how prefetch works. I feel it would be hypocritical of us to ignore this news item. I tread very carefully when I do not know the answer, hence I make so reccomendations here.
     
  7. Franklin

    Franklin Corporal

    You can delete prefetch from the menu by going into CC's program folder,find winsys and delete the prefetch entry.I think you can delete any entries for software you don't have on your pc in winapp,winapp2,winsys and winreg.
    Not that they cause any probs being there.

    Had prefetching set to 2,boot only,for a while and just recently set it back to 3 and did notice programs were opening slightly quicker.
     
  8. theefool

    theefool Geekified

    All I can say is thus: I haven't really looked at my c:\windows\prefetch folder for quite some time. Just now I did. 4.28 MB. Big deal. :) No point in doing anything about it.
     
  9. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    The size of the file was never the problem. The idea of deleting the prefetch file was to remove older "hits" that were no longer required. From the info on the earlier links posted, it appears that deleting Prefetch is an "urban myth" that does not speed up booting up, after the inintial deletion. Bazza
    At least that's the way I understand it. Baz
    ===

     
  10. Oooops!

    Oooops! MajorGeek

    I just wanted to say Thank You. Now I understand a little more about this topic.
    ;)
     
  11. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    First question: No.

    Second question: *.pf
     
  12. bigbazza

    bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

    Kaula, Prefetch is a new feature, introduced in Windows XP.
    Sorry. Bazza

    PS: For XP users, it is located in ........\Windows\Prefetch Baz
    ===

     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2005
  13. Insomniac

    Insomniac Billy Ray Cyrus #1 Fan

    I came across some articles, about 12 months ago, on the virtues of clearing out the Prefetch folder.

    It was actually highly recommended in a computer magazine I read.

    It also suggested that putting /prefetch 1 at the end of my FireFox path shortcut would speed up it's starting time, which is very slow compared to Internet Explorer.

    Neither suggested made the slightest difference.

    If fact, deleting the prefetch files made the programs initially start slower than usual, until the prefetch folder was re-populated.

    My conclusion is, based on my own experience, that it should be left alone.

    XP, unlike previous Windows versions, looks after itself pretty good, and should usually be left alone.

    I'm also yet to see any improvement in using memory managers, or playing around with XP's page file.
     

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