Safe to Delete Windows Prefetch

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:00:53 +0000

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – Yes, GreekHomer, it is safe to delete your Windows Prefetch files. However, there is just no need to. Doing so can actually slow down your next startup, instead of speeding it up as you’re hoping.

The Prefetch is a feature of Windows that actually speeds up the boot process. When Windows starts up, certain processes and programs must load. The files needed to start these are stored in the Prefetch folder. Windows automatically looks there for those files. If you clean out your Prefetch, it won’t hurt anything. But your next boot up will take longer, as those files are put back. My best advice is to just forget the Prefetch, and leave that folder alone.

I’ve done many videos on optimizing speed in the past. Let’s see what the chatters have to say…

Run a Defrag…
Use Disc Cleanup
Clean out Temp folders, either manually or by running a free program such as ATF Cleaner
Use MSConfig to limit the number of things that automatically start up when Windows loads

Each of these are good ideas. You can also try something like FastCache or CacheMan. These programs will change the way Windows handles DNS lookups for websites. They can significantly increase your browsing speed.

Your best course of action, though, is to either use less programs, or get better hardware. When it comes to computer speed and efficiency, it almost always boils down to hardware.

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Safe to Delete Windows Prefetch

Chris Pirillo » prefetch

Safe to Delete Windows Prefetch