Making Windows XP Start Faster - Comments Page 1

Bob,

You missed the largest hog inside XP...the prefetch. Windows remembers everything you have done and, in a misguided attempt to be helpful, pre-loads all the files and links when XP boots. In a networked environment,it can take 5-10 minutes for the PC to boot!

To disable prefetching, run REGEDIT.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> Session Manager -> Memory management -> PrefetchParameters

Locate the EnablePrefetcher binary value and change its value to 0. Then save and reboot.
Once that's done Windows will no longer prefetch data before you use it, it should make everyday computing faster but applications might take a bit longer to load. If you find that performance is worse than before simply change the EnablePrefetcher binary value back to 3.

There is a LOT of myth and legend surrounding the Prefetch feature in Windows. Here's an excellent page that gives solid info from actual Microsoft developers and debunks some of the misinformation people are passing around as fact.

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000743.html

Everything I have read indicates that the default value of "3" for the Prefetch parameter is optimal for most users.

Additionally, the folks from Microsoft say that fiddling with the contents of the C:\windows\prefetch or C:\winnt\prefetch folders is COUNTER-productive, and that adding a "/prefetch:1" flag to shortcuts that launch a program will NOT make it load faster. It may even cause a program to crash.

-- Bob

Prefetch; don't disable it, control it to your advantage:
Windows XP Prefetch Clean And Control 1.2.0
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2495
"Tool for flushing the Prefetch log and controlling the Prefetch Parameters.
What Is Prefetch?
Taken From Microsoft Website:
"Windows XP monitors the files that are used when the computer starts and when you start applications. By monitoring these files, Windows XP can prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is expected to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot files and applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP and start applications."
This information is logged and stored on your hard drive taking up space and requiring a process to be kept running monitoring which applications are being run. This has a performance impact on your PC. Disabling the Prefetch function or at least only enabling it for the Boot Files will allow you to free up some system resources and preserve some disk space."

I use option four, the Windows default, and clean the prefetch folder once a month.

I looked at this application and I would recommend against it, primarily because:

1) It recommends that you use pre-fetch ONLY for boot files, which will cause a NEGATIVE impact on performance for most systems. Commonly used applications will take longer to load because you turned off the caching. Pre-fetching just the boot files is useful only on systems with very limited RAM -- 128 MB or less.

2) Cleaning the pre-fetch folder is not necessary. Windows manages it automatically, dropping out entries that are old or unused.

3) Cleaning the pre-fetch folder can have a NEGATIVE impact, because Windows has to re-copy all the pages files you "cleaned out".

Let the operating system manage the pre-fetch cache -- that is its job.

Bob, a neat recommendation for running multiple spyware removal programs was made to Langa List members:

http://www.hitmanpro.nl/

The site is Dutch but the latest version can be downloaded in English. I had to prompt Zonealarm a few times to allow the programs to be downloaded and updated. Now I run it at the end of the day and set it to shut down my computer when finished.

I am constantly getting excessive pop-ups from Auora, A Better Internet, etc. Every time I delete files manually,Norton Anti Virus finds them but can't get rid of it "delete failed", The Prefetch keeps bringing it back. I find this very frustrating. How do I get rid of this without having the files fetched again by this feature. By the way, interesting enough, the icon shown on Add/Remove files for this ABI is the same as the AOL's Port Magic. Furthermore, Clicking on Remove file doesn't work for this ABI Direct Revenue which is full of adware and pop-ups. How can I permanently get rid of these?

The Prefetch does not bring any files back. That is not how it works. .PF files are trace files that references the locations of all the files an application needs to load. It is simple referenced upon application load to optimally load the application. It hold no data from the application.
All prefetch "tweaks" are Myths. Don't tweak it, don't clean the folder, just leave it alone.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html

As far the the 1/2 cup of registry shavings goes I happen to use StompSoft Registry Repair (http://www.stompsoft.com/registry-repair.html) brand shavings. Though seriously, I believe that improving Windows start up and performance is a multiple approach process just as you have outlined. I'm glad to see that the common computer user has an answer go to person such as yourself without having to pay an arm and a leg for the service. :)

I used MS Regclean for a long time, but stopped using it around the time of Office 2000. The problem I found is that it cleans out orphaned entries (if it doesn't find a file that's referenced). However, many newer Office products have the "Install upon first use" option for components, and Regclean seems to wipe out those important entries! I believe this is probably why Microsoft stopped supporting it around that time.

In regards to the mention you make that "you can always go back and turn a service back on" might be dangerous, as some services are pretty critical and a regular user may not be able to reverse a setting if they are unable to boot or log into Windows.

I found this site pretty useful for cleaning up;
http://computercleanup.blogspot.com/