Pre-fetch

[Manny]

Hi guys

 

I understand this is an old issue, and the bottom line seems to be that it is a myth that to empty the pre-fetch folder speeds up the pc, as doing so actually slows it down: One more time: do not clean out your Prefetch folder! | Ed Bott’s Windows Expertise |

 

However, a friend mentioned to me the other day that he has read (somewhere) that the My Docs folder is included in the pre-fetch, and if this folder is very large, then this too will slow the pc down as it boots. (He said he moved a lot of stuff out of his My Docs, and his pc has sped up).

 

What do we think about this please? Is this more misinformation or is there some truth in this?

 

Cheers :o)

 

Manny

[Match]

Personally I don't know if there is any truth in it or not but...

 

The my Docs folder is on your hard drive and the speed it opens at would be related to RAM, Buffers, Caches, and Hard drive Speed RPM, so any saving in time would be in milliseconds if not nanoseconds, so I think its a case of go faster stripes on a car.

 

If anyone can produce a link to an artical of reputable publication to state the contrary I would like to read it

[Tootech]

Hi Manny,

 

Deleting the prefetch contents does slow the PC at next boot - it certainly doesn't speed it up. After that first boot , it settles down again.

 

My feeling is that the only legitimate reason for deleting prefetch data is due to malware infection - infections often create a prefetch entry.

 

The My Documents issue I think refers to XP loading the user profile. Each profile loaded contains all of your Docs, temp files and other junk.

 

A PC connected to a domain will load the roaming profile when a user logs on - ie it will pick up all the users settings from a central database. If you have a large My Documents folder, its contents have to be transferred over the network as you log on. Read that as slow.

 

A normal home PC doesn't go through all that lark and so I can't see a reason why a large My Documents folder would slow down a logon.

 

Perhaps there is some confusion there....but I'm not entirely sure :)

[Manny]

So for now it looks like another myth. :) Thanks again guys.

[Match]

There are some good tips HERE on how to speed up your PC, the one thing that I would not recommend is downloading any programs/software that promise to make things work faster.

[Plastic Nev]

Of course another good way of improving start up time, is a good look at what loads up from boot, disable or stop items you don't need to start.

[Goku]

However, a friend mentioned to me the other day that he has read (somewhere) that the My Docs folder is included in the pre-fetch, and if this folder is very large, then this too will slow the pc down as it boots. (He said he moved a lot of stuff out of his My Docs, and his pc has sped up).

Hello Manny. The Prefetch folder stores a cache of files that are last accessed by the user to provide quicker access the next time the program or file is called for. I personally clean out my prefetch folder daily and securely and don't notice any performance difference. At least, I don't care to wait for a few more seconds. :)

 

Your friend might have a lot of commonly used files in the My Documents folder and thus moving it might have resulted in faster bootup. Besides, Windows loads the user profiles on every bootup and this includes the user's documents; therefore moving the "stuff" to some other partition or drive might indeed result in a slight performance gain. I myself store my important documents and files on a drive other than the one on which I have Windows installed, least because I doubt the reliability of Windows.

 

Lastly, there are some parts of the drive which result in faster access than others and therefore the files might have shifted his files to these "optimal" areas.

 

All I can say is that keep the way it is unless you notice a very large performance lag. What worked for him might not necessarily work for you as each system is different and so are its needs.

 

Hope that helps. :)

 

-- Goku