What is Digg?137 Comments
- maninblac1, on 10/12/2007, -7/+69Woa, who thought be deleting the PRE-fetch folder on windows you could shut down faster? PRE??? PRE??? PRE=before...before??...before "anything"....before "anything" => booting/loading.
OH booting and loading, the exact opposite of shutting down! - Mejogid, on 10/12/2007, -5/+66I think this is one of those pyshological things - you expect to see an improvement so you see one, even if there isn't one. If your prefetch folder was heavily fragmented this could increase peformance, but it would be better just to defragment your disk. I'm pretty sure that everything the autuhor says is correct, and despite the general opinion on this site, the engineers at Microsoft aren't idiots, and would not go to the effort of developing prefetching if it hindered performance.
- Brewdaddy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+61Balls, and I JUST deleted my prefetch an hour ago after reading that erroneous article.
- xXShadowstormXx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+38We need a Windows/Microsoft subcatagory.
It's lame how Digg sports Linux/Unix and Apple subcatagories while Microsoft particularly ignored. - av4rice, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36Yeah I thought the "myth" was about speeding up STARTUP times
- fleetskeet, on 10/12/2007, -28/+56You should use an OS that doesn't crap all over itself every 3 months.
- goat77, on 10/12/2007, -14/+40IE7 is a potential phishing browser.
- goat77, on 10/12/2007, -5/+31An overwhelming majority of computer users? Or do I just not understand your sarcasm...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+31There's no need to do that. Your computer shouldn't be slowing down unless you are visiting shady sites. I've had this install for the last 3 years and it is still going strong.
If it does slow down, I had a system restore point made right after I had configured everything and installed all my drivers, etc. My "My Documents" folder is on a completely seperate partition. If my computer slows down and I have to use the system restore point (I haven't had to yet) I just click the button, it goes back to where it was right after the fresh install, and I haven't lost any important files. Install any new updates and you're good to go. What you're doing is too much work that shouldn't need to be done. - prosperolt, on 10/12/2007, -9/+32Not sure why the original comment was buried....
digg title: Do not delete the Prefetch folder on Windows
article title: Do not clean out your Prefetch folder!
There's a difference and the original comment was trying to reflect that. - adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -8/+28Man, you guys must have all kinds of free time if you can do that crap.
- redxii, on 10/12/2007, -8/+23I'm on month 15 in XP and it still runs like a champ.
- gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20Lots of people do. Shutting down is one of the few ways that most parts of Windows permanently save settings (same as rebooting), so if it takes 5 minutes to shut down, it will bug people.
- gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16"When your workstation boots, XP prefetches portions of the files you use most frequently and has any application you’ve recently run waiting and ready to go."
Ed Bott is right in saying that the above quote is wrong. However, I find it funny that he failed to mention (as did everyone else) that Windows Vista's superfetch does exactly that :P - gcauthon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Being a programmer, I had to prove this to myself the easy way. I wrote a DLL that just returns a hello message, but I compiled the largest debug static libs that I had on my system to make it larger in memory.
Then I wrote a little hello world program that tracks the number of milliseconds taken to load the dll into memory. Needless to say, it behaves exactly like the article states. When I delete the prefetch file and recompile the DLL (to force a new version to be loaded) it takes 32ms. When I compile a fresh version but leave the prefetch file there, it takes 0ms because the DLL is already loaded when the program loads.
Without recompiling a new version of the DLL, subsequent executions take 0ms with or without the prefetch file because the DLL is obviously already in memory. - tastethevenom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I like how the underdog operating systems have taken precedence, but yes, I agree. It would be nice for some to filter out Windows-related stories.
- sebnukem, on 10/12/2007, -7/+18@Iatova.
Man that is pathetic. Like taylorwood pointed out maybe it's time to upgrade to something that works unless you really have nothing better to do in your life.
What OS are you running on anyway? - WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -10/+20@redxii
"I'm on month 15 in XP and it still runs like a champ."
HAHAHA Wait until month 16!
(Should we tell him?) - wurzelgummage, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14Don't turn off task scheduler service.
- Ridonkulus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@ mejogid
I agree. It's called the placebo effect. - Virion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8It may say that, but I've seen prefetch files for things I ran once or use so rarely it'd be a waste to prefetch it. Ideally it should dump old or unused prefetch data, but that's not always the case.
- Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9My prefetch is fecked. I have it turned on, but the folder is always empty.(it's set to 3, which is both applications and boot).
- ismith, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Never listen to digg without research. Besides, a lot (A LOT) of people come to digg just to post and popularize their own crap, sometimes for stupid/malicious purposes. And especially when dealing with Windows............
- tsupersonic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10"3) dont download viruses/spyware"
Lol, like I'm deciding if I want viruses and spyware on purpose. Those things just happen sometimes to somepeople who visit shady sites. - Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Dunno why i was modded down, but someone solved the problem anyway. It seems you need task scheduler on for prefetch to work, i have mine disabled, so that explains things 100%. Cheers wurzelgummage.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8@gcnaddict
Right on the money.
However the article doesn't point out one important factor. Deleting the prefetch CAN increase performance in a VERY specific instance: On a publicly used system.
When I worked at the University we had a script to delete the prefetch specifically because it literally slowed the system since there was no "typical" use case.
On a system for a single user there is no performance improvement from deleting the prefetch. However, for a system that is used by literally hundreds of users per day there was a significant (only a few seconds to be honest) performance increase. In any case there is some truth to the assumption but it is not typical for most scenarios.
Finally, I wonder if you have played around with Vista much. I have not. In fact, my experience with it so far was to start an install and then wipe it. Is Superfetch an option or part of the core required services? Does it actually speed anything up? I see a lot of potential problems with Superfetch (in concept at least). - Takteek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Even if it was, you're not planning on entering your credit card numbers to view the article are you?
- OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I just want to say that PC hardware has gotten much better lately. XP is still the same junk it always was, but the latest hardware is MUCH better than what we had earlier.
I say this after recently fixing a four year old PC for someone. The stark contrast between 2006 hardware and 2002 hardware is shocking. People forget how bad it used to be! Don't make me mention floppy drives. :p
The best way to "fix" XP? Upgrade your hardware.
But I'm sure Vista will nullify any improvements the latest hardware has created. - praveenmarkandu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6contd.
@arachnist: please do not tell people to switch OS. its not the solution to every windows digg. i use linux but i realise the ease of use of windows and why peole use it. and *nix systems have a way higher boot time then windows so your comment is way off topic. - ferric21, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7A detailed, technical description of what prefetching is and how it works may be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/01/12/XPKernel/default.aspx
The details are about %20 down the page. In a nutshell, items in your prefetch folder are *not* loaded into memory at boot, unless they are specifically related to the boot process. Leaving them be will only speed the launch times of the applications you use frequently. Deleting them will slow the next boot/application launch, at which time the relevant prefetch files will be recreated (unless explicitly deactivated via the registry). - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I would like an explination then, why the hell does all windows machines get incredibly slow over a period of time.
Even without viruses. Even with minimal start up processes, even with very little spyware, no mystery apps running in the background, no apps misbehaving and leaking. Even after a defrag. With more than enough available hard-drive space, a paging file twice the size of the RAM. After running registry cleaners and such, and crap cleaner to catch extras.
Even after all of that. An xp machine boot up, shutdown, and opening of apps can be slow as hell.
Maybe if most apps were portable, and windows didn't rely on that ***** registry, this wouldn't be an issue. I'm not saying the prefetch is correct. I don't see what it hurts though. But i would like an explination of why maintaining near-clean-install optimization is near-impossible. - cm32438, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"The article says that the .pf files for seldom used programs get deleted automatically."
Actually the article said that there is a maximum number of .pf files that are stored, and that unused ones would be deleted "eventually," as in when they are the oldest (as in last accessed) remaining .pf file and the OS needs to create a new one, supposing the upper limit of .pf files had been reached.
Deleting these unused .pf files could potentially clear up a minuscule amount of space on your hard drive, but as the article said, if you are not running a program anymore, its .pf file will never be accessed, and thus not use up any resources (aside from its spot on the disk). - baraqiyal, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8The article says that the .pf files for seldom used programs get deleted automatically.
- radiofrequency, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"why the hell does all windows machines get incredibly slow over a period of time. "
Winrot. - SteveDeGroof, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Just for fun, I tried it. First, I booted the PC to get a baseline startup time. I timed it from power up to the point where the last of the autostart apps finished loading. Came out to 2:25. I deleted the files out of the prefetch folder and did it again: 3:35. I expected this one to be slower, since it had to re-cache the system files. One more reboot: 1:55. So, I ended up with an overall improvement of 30 seconds. That's not too bad. Could be that the improvement was just a quirk, though. Hard to tell. You'd probably have to do the same test on a large number of machines to see if there was a consistent gain.
Before I deleted the files, I looked to see what they were. Most were system files but some were apps that I hadn't used in a while and don't use often enough to warrant prefetch. - Splitt3rxx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I tried it yesterday, all it did was made the boot up after it twice as long.
- radiofrequency, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Too late. I already did it based on the last front-page news item. Everything runs fine. First boot was slower but subsequent ones are just as fast as before I deleted the folder. I did change the registry setting to prefetch only boot items, not applications.
Why is this such a big deal? - Splitt3rxx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6PC is the best platform for gaming IMO. so stfu apple/linux fanboy. try playing c&c generals, warhammer 40,000 or dark messiah of might and magic on your gay apple computer or a console. and don't use the whole dual booting excus because you would still be using windows, just on ***** overpriced hardware.
- Herolint, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4You are completely wrong. It is ALL about whose is bigger.
- jacks0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3no, this site is wrong. he directly says any programs in the prefetch aren't loaded under bootstrap. bzzzzt!
"Prefetch is a utility that loads commonly used applications to RAM when the system starts."
from microsoft themselves: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/xpehelp/html/xetskDisablingPrefetch.asp
marked as inaccurate. - ismith, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Well it is Windows, so every time you update you have to shut down... :)
- spectre_25gt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There's absolutely no reason for a question like that to be buried here. It's completely on-topic and to be expected.
Thank you, Weasel, for being a decent digger and answering the question. - mrfloppy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@tsupersonic
this is just all too much.... I feel like a kid in a candy store with willy wonka's golden ticket.
virus's just happen? NO THEY BLOODY DON'T.
they are the result of user misfortune. really. - Sp4nk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Windows XP is what 7? 8 years old? Quit ***** with it.
- temporalwar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Just because you saw it on the Internet does not make it true!
reminds me of the people that downloaded the PSP down-grader files from P2P and bricked there PSPs when you can get the files from PSPupdates.com etc. - redxii, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35. You overbid, so you lose.
- Weasel22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Set it to 3; this enables prefetch for boot files as well as applications.
- neonsox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3You know what's funny? Out of the three OS's that I use, Mac OS boots and shuts down the fastest. Linux and Windows take about the same time, although Linux is on an old Duron and XP is on an Athlon 64.
Digg me down, but Mac OS is fast, bitches. - ChrisGranger, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Delete prefetch items that you know you don't need, for example programs you've uninstalled or hardly ever use... but leave the rest of them alone. They're there for a reason.
- tw0bit, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7So does whats the best registry entry to have for enabling the prefetch?
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