CCleaner Cripples Application Load Times

[GeneralAres]

Popular Technology.net

Recently CCleaner has added an internet urban legend as a cleaning option, "Old Prefetch Data". Cleaning the Prefetch folder is an internet Myth that simply will not die due to the gross ignorance of many people in regards to how Windows XP Prefetching works. These same people generally recommend other bogus advice such as disabling Windows Prefetching completely and adding /Prefetch:1 to desktop shortcuts.

"Bottom line: You will NOT improve Windows performance by cleaning out the Prefetch folder. You will, in fact, degrade Windows performance by cleaning out the Prefetch folder."

What CCleaner does
CCleaner deletes any Prefetch file older then two weeks based on the .pf file's last access date. This is completely idiotic for a number of reasons. First you should never delete a .pf for any installed application. With the .pf file missing, that application will take up to 100% more time to load when you decide to launch it. CCleaner does this to any application you have installed on your computer but have not used in over two weeks. It makes absolutely no sense to delete these files. Why would you deliberately want to slow down any installed application's load time? It will also do this if you have not used you computer for two weeks. Second, it is quite common to disable the NTFS Last Access Time Stamp for performance reasons. I actually recommend doing this since it speeds up the file system. In this case CCleaner will delete any .pf file that was created over two weeks ago. You can clearly see how running CCleaner in this case would wind up deleting ALL your Prefetch files every two weeks. Now you are crippling every application's load time on your system instead of just the ones you have not used in two weeks. Ridiculous! (read more)

Yep, cleaning the prefetch folder is a waste of time.

 

[Joemonkey]

the next time you load the app, doesn't it re-create the pre-fetch file?

 

[GeneralAres]

Yes the file is recreated the next time it is launched but that first time after you delete it's .pf file it will be unoptimized and load slowly. Why would you deliberately ever want to slow down an applications load time? This is the point and the makers of CCleaner don't understand this.

 

[BW86]

I clear my prefetch folder every month

 

[GeneralAres]

I clear my prefetch folder every month

Why?

 

[Joemonkey]

Originally posted by: GeneralAres

I clear my prefetch folder every month

Why?

why not? if you have programs you use constantly, the 2 week thing doesn't matter. If you use a program once a month, is that extra 3 seconds of load time going to kill you? What about programs you uninstall? I realize the disk space from the prefetch files is tiny, but still.

 

[CrystalBay]

Some people delete the prefetch folder, according to some tweak guides.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: GeneralAres

I clear my prefetch folder every month

Why?

Sample reason that people might want to do so: W32.Mugly.E@MM.

Creates the following files:

%System%\attached.zip
%System%\ANSMTP.DLL (an SMTP engine)
%System%\bszip.dll
%System%\uglym.jpg
%System%\win32.exe (detected as W32.Spybot.Worm)
%Windir%\Prefetch\bt32.exe-[eight random characters].pf

Or this fun rootkit-enhanced worm: http://www.antisource.com/article.php/rootkit-msnt-msdirectx

 

[GeneralAres]

That is fine if you are infected with that but it is pretty ridiculous to do it otherwise. Actually you would not want to clear the folder, just delete that file or the infected file. That is like telling people to delete their system restore cache all the time incase it might be infected with something, it just doesn't make any sense. Any AV program can clean an infected file that is hiding in the prefetch folder.

 

[GeneralAres]

why not? if you have programs you use constantly, the 2 week thing doesn't matter. If you use a program once a month, is that extra 3 seconds of load time going to kill you? What about programs you uninstall? I realize the disk space from the prefetch files is tiny, but still.

Why would you want to delete a prefetch file for any installed application? I mean what is the point, just to delete files? It doesn't make any sense. How much time is save varies widely by the application. All you are doing by deleting a prefetch file for an installed application is hurting it's load time. I mean if that is your intent then have fun. Logically it is stupid.