Prefetch?

[thesingingdog]

Why is CCleaner v3.11.1550 not deleting the Prefetch folder, even when it is manually added in Options>Include?

 

It's like a stubborn mule!

[Guest Keatah]

Windows is always going to put it back. And if there is a file in use from that folder, then that, too, is an issue.

[kroozer]

. . . v3.11.1550 not deleting the Prefetch folder . . .

 

CC doesn't delete it — the folder is vacuumed.

 

I now right-clicked ☐Old Prefetch data and CC cleaned mine. Recent prefetch contents (2 days) was left intact.

 

btw, your v3.11.1550 is 13 versions old (4 Oct 2011). The current version is 3.23.

[Nergal]

because (non-old) prefetch is in use and thus locked, this would be my guess.

[Guest Keatah]

That is right

[Andavari]

btw, your v3.11.1550 is 13 versions old (4 Oct 2011). The current version is 3.23.

 

That's reason enough to finally update to the current version if complaining about some feature/bug. I doubt any solutions are available for old versions, i.e.; unsupported.

[Nergal]

As it doesn't really double a function of ccleaner, this app (from a very trusted developer) came across my desk today, it's pretty cool (and may be able to do what your asking and delete more recent prefetchs

 

http://www.nirsoft.n...fetch_view.html

 

Description

 

Each time that you run an application in your system, a Prefetch file which contains information about the files loaded by the application is created by Windows operating system. The information in the Prefetch file is used for optimizing the loading time of the application in the next time that you run it.

WinPrefetchView is a small utility that reads the Prefetch files stored in your system and display the information stored in them. By looking in these files, you can learn which files every application is using, and which files are loaded on Windows boot.

[hazelnut]

Nice find Nergal.

[nodles]

OT: In case you didn't know, there's a great package of tools from Nirsoft; NirLauncher

[Roland GINEYS]

Hello,

 

 

Windows stores files in the Prefetch folder to accelerate the subsequent use of the programs. We gain a little time, maybe a few milliseconds. But we filled the hard drive. You can avoid this by disabling the prefetcher.

On XP, the registry, going from:

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]

"EnablePrefetcher" 3 ->0

 

Best regards

 

R G

[Guest Keatah]

I tend to agree. In the old days when access times were in 10's or 100's of ms, perhaps S - then it made sense.

[Super Fast]

I have deleted the entire contents of C:\Windows\Prefetch on both my XP & 7 systems at times, with no ill effect.

 

All Windows will do, is recreate the Readyboot trace files & prefetch items again when it needs them.

 

You could also use Include option to delete them all, or disable prefetch entirely via reg key.

[eL_PuSHeR]

If you delete your prefetch folder contents you may notice some slowdowns when loading applications. Windows has to rebuilt all files from scratch. On the other hand, one can live happily without prefetching or, at least, prefetching boot loader only.

[Roland GINEYS]

Hi, eLPuSHeR,

 

I tend to agree. however, the time it takes for the files to be recreated, we did not even have time to look for a bottle of beer or coke. It is not interesting.

 

Best regards

 

R G

[Guest Keatah]

Ya'gotta love the internet and its entourage of self-proclaimed experts who explain a topic with so much "authority" you have little reason to believe otherwise. Anyone think they know what prefetch does? Think again. Prefetch doesn't load any part of the program at startup/boot. Prefetch simply tells the o/s what pages to load (parts of the program) when you click on the icon.

 

It's like a family making a trip for the first time, they seemingly drag the entire house with them in a U-haul. They quickly find out they don't need all this stuff. And so the second trip is much more thought out in regards to what is bought along. Everything is now packed efficiently and quickly, bringing along only the necessities. And while at their destination, they can purchase any emergency or forgotten items as necessary.

 

Well, prefetch is the same thing, a prefetch file is the list of necessary items the family uses on the second trip, just the necessities. Anything else can be accessed from the disk as the user works through the program, loading special plugins, or modules.

 

I think we can all agree that photoshop is a heavy hitting program with lots of complexity going on.. Well I timed the loading of it. And then I did it again after manually deleting the prefetch files associated with it. There was little difference. If there was, it was in the sub-seconds time range and not perceptible.

 

This is an inaccurate description of prefetch --

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/gaining-speed-empty-prefetch-xp.html

http://askville.amazon.com/safe-empty-prefetch-folder-windows-temp-causing-harm-computer/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=6701418

 

This in an accurate description, and from reliable sources too --

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2005/06/one-more-time-do-not-clean-out-your-prefetch-folder/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspxfolder/

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2003/04/beware-of-bogus-xp-advice/

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2005/04/tip-of-the-day-dont-clean-out-the-prefetch-folder/

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2005/04/debunking-yet-another-bogus-windows-tip/

 

 

 

I do not know, nor do I care about, what the exact criteria CCleaner uses for cleaning the prefetch folder. Here.. In one of my abused test systems, one on which I always seemingly incorrectly power down and install and un-install and re-install stuff on.. Yep, I kill the power in the middle of updates and disk writes too! On this system I had 3 orphaned or old/unused prefetch files out of about 100. And I believe these .PF files are related to system updates. CCleaner found them and wiped them. But it left the other ~100 files alone which is a good thing.

 

I can tell you that a typical PF folder is maybe 5-10 megs in size, tops. And back in the day of 100meg hard disks things like this would make a difference. Remember, a typical .PF file is less than 100K bytes in size, it is a map and list.

 

Listen peeps! If you're groping for ways to improve performance and doing all these tweaks because you need the speed, then it is best to get newer hardware. If you're tweaking just to tweak and get a psychological boost, well then, have it!

 

Very few tweaks to Windows result in speedups, and most adjustments do something that degrades the performance.

[Roland GINEYS]

Hi, Keatah,

 

 

I tend to agree.

On the technical reality, you really just. Only there is the psychological reality. Many people are afraid of files they don't know well, afraid they be virus.

So many people compulsively or morbidly clean with C Cleaner.

 

What is important is the welfare of the computer user. Reality, we can forget it.

 

Best regards

 

R G

[Andavari]

Very few tweaks to Windows result in speedups, and most adjustments do something that degrades the performance.

 

Indeed. And many "tweaks" which I always quote anymore "may have some positive benefit" when listed on a site however they will rarely if ever list the negatives.

[Super Fast]

A prefetch file serves the same purpose as a temporary internet file caches do. Speed up load times.

 

It could be argued that leaving your temporary caches will speed up access to the internet on your HDD/SSD, since they pull the files locally from your drive.

But the perceived difference is hardly noticeable. For that reason, I rather just call the Prefetch folder trash, & have the option to delete the entire contents.

 

CCleaner is made to clean trash, not speed up the computer.

[Roland GINEYS]

Hi, Andavari,

 

Positives benefits aren't the same for evertbody. Those who speak Keatah don't interest me. So I disable the prefetcher. I don't think the feeling of losing something or win something.

 

I know it's only psychological.

 

R G

[Guest Keatah]

Back in the late 90's and early 2000's, around the dot-com boom - many budding websites were more than happy to offer totally unqualified advice and "information" in the form of tweaks and promises to speed-up your PC. Furthermore, with the dawning of the commercial internet, everybody including their unborn kids and deceased relatives had online access. All of this made an environment ripe for spreading mis-information. And "elite" pc-tuning sites were no exception.

 

Techies would go around, and make all these changes to their systems and not actually see an improvement. Overclockers were the worst offenders. But the perceived psychological benefit was very real. And sometimes they'd try so hard they'd begin to believe and see a faster system when isn't any change. And this phenomenon still exists today.

 

And then there's the folks that run two anti-virus programs. Ughh.. After one particularly tedious repair I had a dream one time, a long time ago, about running 2 AV programs on the same system. They started fighting each other, one would detect a virus and quarantine it, and then the 2nd one would detect errant code in the 1st one's quarantine bin. And then the first one would get upset that the second one tried deleting part of the first one because it was processing errant code. Soon enough the system was screaming at itself and this back'n'forth battle grew to enormous proportions and my computer exploded. Henceforth it is not wise to run 2 AV programs simultaneously.

 

Much of the advice I offer regarding performance enhancements is cross-referenced against the mfg. and their reasoning and best practices. Let me state for the record that you don't really need to be fiddling and messing with a modern system except in certain cases where there is clearly a problem. And your adjustment or tweak should have a measurable and perceivable performance gain or problem-solving action. Otherwise you're just changing something to change it. And probably destabilizing the system.

 

But, hey, if you feel the need to delete part of the operating system or think you can make it better by forcing it behave in XYZ manner then definitely go ahead. Tell me about it so that I may include it in my personal recommendations, perhaps write a utility based around it, and cut you a bit of the profits! On the flipside, expect me to complain and call your idea a cloud of blown smoke if it doesn't do anything. Expect worse if it breaks something!

[Roland GINEYS]

Hi, Super Fast

 

I like: "CCleaner is made to clean trash, not speed up the computer."

 

To delete folders trash, I have a solution. You choose to put the parameters c cleaner in the ccleaner. ini you and edit it.

 

For example, we can choose:

Include1=PATH|C:\WINDOWS\Installer\|*.*

Include2=PATH|C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\|*.*

Include3=PATH|C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\|*.*

Include4=PATHC:\WINDOWS\|system32\dllcache\|*.*

Include5=PATH|\|*.*

Include6=PATH|\|*.*

Include7=PATH|\|*.*

Include8=PATH|\|*.*

Include9=PATH|\|*.*

Include10=PATH|\|*.*

 

Warning, must respect the Patch-File order and alphabetically order in the following.

 

You can also edit from the interface of C Cleaner: (Options-Include)

 

Best Regards

 

R G

[Roland GINEYS]

Hi, Keatah,

 

I feel the need to delete part of the operating system because I know a lot of files are totally unnecessary and merely fill the hard disk. For example, there are records installers, uninstallers and others. It is gigabytes.

 

However, before delete the folder trash mentioned in my previous message, we must think about whether you won't need.

 

Best regards.

 

R G

[Guest Keatah]

Careful with the "Include1=PATH|C:\WINDOWS\Installer\|*.*" line, this affects the ability to uninstall and reinstall some applications, most notably on-demand feature installation.

[Guest Keatah]

I wonder if there isn't a consistency checking utility to compare the "C:\WINDOWS\Installer" with what is actually on the system?

[Roland GINEYS]

Hi,

 

It's possible there is this consistency checking utility. But, I don't see it work.

 

This is not a problem for me because I have two operating systems on the same hard disk. In the event of a system crash, I start with the second system and I make a copy and paste four saved folders of system updated with drivers and basic programs.

 

Best regards

 

R G