TSGL: Prefetch

[jonpan]

Hi Don,

I just checked out the effect of turning off Task Scheduler on Prefetch - I 
flushed the contents of the Prefetch folder, then turned off Tsk Schd, 
opened a number of programmes and looked at PF which showed no entries. 
Turned TskSchd back on and opened several programmes again. These then 
appeared in the PF folder.   (XP Pro SP2)

However, regarding the effect on performance, I wouldn't know how to measure 
it  and would prefer to rely on your impressions!

So if you delete the PF Folder and have TskSchd turned off, you have 
effectively disabled PF.

Re. System Restore, I feel pretty sure that SR needs TskSchd for setting the 
restore points, so if you set the points manually you're presumably O.K.

Cheers,

John
Od/G




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Penlington" <deepend at tpg.com.au>
To: "Tech Support Guy Mailing List" <list at tsgserver.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 4:14 AM
Subject: Re: TSGL: Prefetch


For the uninitiated, my understanding of the Prefetch function in XP is
that Windows holds a folder called Prefetch containing duplicates of the
most commonly used drivers and .dll files in your system. The theory is
that whenever you open a program, Windows will look first in the Prefetch
folder to load those files instead of hunting around in the Program Files
folder or other places.  Some experts recommend clearing out this folder
occasionally, because if it gets too large, that defeats its purpose of
speeding up the system.

What do readers think about the supposed advantages of Prefetch in
XP?  I've never been really convinced that it has any noticeable effect on
a modern fast computer. Maybe it depends on your setup.

To my thinking,  the time taken to find program files on a modern
reasonably fast computer is negligible.  Maybe it might make a difference
if you have thousands of programs, ---but then you'd also end up with
thousands of entries in Prefetch, so it would sort of cancel out any
supposed benefits.

Like a good lad, I occasionally empty the Prefetch cache, which usually
contains about 110 items.  One would think that you would see a slight
drop-off in performance after doing this, while the cache builds itself up
again. But it doesn't happen.

Is it a coincidence that my Program Files folder also has about 110 program
folders in it?  Is this a lot of software by most standards?

John has suggested that having Task Scheduler disabled will also disable
Prefetch.  Though I can't figure out any logic in this, I've had Task
Scheduler enabled/disabled at various times, but it doesn't seem to have
made any noticeable difference to performance one way or another.

Have any readers played around with Prefetch to see if it really does make
a difference? Is it dependant on your type of computer use?

It's not a problem, I'm just curious.  Can Prefetch be disabled?

Don Penlington



 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html


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