Clearing the Prefetch folder

[Modular]

I was rooting around in my C:Windows folder and noticed that my prefetch has gotten quite big. There are some programs in there that I don't even have anymore I think.

Can I delete all the files in the pre-fetch folder without harming anything?

 

[bsobel]

You can delete the contents at will, the ones needed will be rebuilt automatically.

 

[Modular]

OK thanks. I'm hoping this will help my Startup times a bit.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Modular
OK thanks. I'm hoping this will help my Startup times a bit.

Extremely unlikely I'm afraid, but report back if it does.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: Modular
OK thanks. I'm hoping this will help my Startup times a bit.

Extremely unlikely I'm afraid, but report back if it does.

...and please wait until you get some typical computer usage and *several* reboots before reporting any final conclussions.

 

[theAnimal]

Text

 

[fishjie]

^ cool you learn something new every day!

so if i understand the prefetch section of this article correctly, it contains the page fault information for various applications, so that it wont have to do scattered disk IO reads but instead get them all at once.

SOOOOOOOOO, if I altered the content in those files, particularlly NTOSBOOT-B00DFAAD.PF, i could potentially ruin windows? but deleting would be ok, because it would just regenerate them?

 

[Leros]

I've been running this install of Windows XP for 6 months, I have tons of programs installed. My pre-fetch is only 3.5MB. Is this not normal?

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

My Prefetch folder is not only empty but inaccessible to my limited user account. It shows 4+MB to my Admin account, but why can't my limited account use it?

Anybody know?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Garth
My Prefetch folder is not only empty but inaccessible to my limited user account. It shows 4+MB to my Admin account, but why can't my limited account use it?

Anybody know?

Can't access it isn't the same as can't use it. Your limited account might not have permissions but I'm quite sure the system account does. I've never really looked at the perms on that folder so this is news to me.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: fishjie
^ cool you learn something new every day!

so if i understand the prefetch section of this article correctly, it contains the page fault information for various applications, so that it wont have to do scattered disk IO reads but instead get them all at once.

SOOOOOOOOO, if I altered the content in those files, particularlly NTOSBOOT-B00DFAAD.PF, i could potentially ruin windows? but deleting would be ok, because it would just regenerate them?

Clearing out the prefetch is not going to break your machine. Without really, really knowing what you are doing editing something in there would be a bad idea. I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough to try such things.