Prefetch files.

Norant

What are they and can they be deleted safely or is best just to leave them.


I have been recommended to remove them by a friend but i thought i would run it by the techies first.

seedyh

The OS will only recreate the files anyway. It seems to be undecided still, some say yes and some say no as regards performance improvements.

Here's a little info - http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=743

[Deleted User]

Norant wrote: »

What are they

Part of how the operating system improves performance by keeping track of frequently used executables.

and can they be deleted safely

You could remove them with no other implication other than a reduction in the overall performance of your machine until the operating system recreates the cache which would bring you in a full circle.

or is best just to leave them.

Why you'd want to do anything with them is beyond me..

I have been recommended to remove them by a friend but i thought i would run it by the techies first.

What reasoning has he used in support of removing them?

busenbust

If you delete, there will be no ill effects on the OS;)

John_Gray

busenbust wrote: »

If you delete, there will be no ill effects on the OS;)

But, as previously stated, no improvement, either!

Norant

anewhope wrote: »

Why you'd want to do anything with them is beyond me..



What reasoning has he used in support of removing them?

I did not want to remove them i was advised to,and because i do not know what they are,or what purpose they served i thought i would run it by the Techies on here.

My next question would have been.

If they are safe to delete and they give any better performance how would i go about doing it,however my question was answered by telling me that i can delete should i want to but the OS would simply put them back.

Thankyou all so much for your answers,everything is now clear.

busenbust

John_Gray wrote: »

But, as previously stated, no improvement, either!

^^^^:rotfl:Read again my post.;)

John_Gray

busenbust wrote: »

^^^^:rotfl:Read again my post.;)

I did, but considered it to be casuistical!

Richie-from-the-Boro

Assuming your puter is younger than a 3 or 4 year old spec it will make no difference, but : -

- pointless unless you first disable prefetch, it will only re-make the logs
- most people who have trouble with prefetch have low memory/CPU capability
- leading to disk thrashing for the first few minutes after booting up

- reasonable 4 core on 8gig memory wouldn't even notice prefetch
- @ 80p a gig for hard drive space it's the cheapest it's ever been


I'm on Win7 and prefetch is disabled, as it was on Vista & WinXp - neither do I use a recycle bin, nothing on my machine creates any kind of CPU / MEM / HDD activity unless it's me.

Just back up [ from windows ] each Friday - takes 5 mins - free product from Microsoft and your safe as you can be.

busenbust

John_Gray wrote: »

I did, but considered it to be casuistical!

[sic.]

Read again perhaps

bat999

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

neither do I use a recycle bin, nothing on my machine creates any kind of CPU / MEM / HDD activity unless it's me.

Just back up [ from windows ] each Friday - takes 5 mins - free product from Microsoft and your safe as you can be.

What do those two sentences mean?
:undecided