I noticed CCleaner has an option to clean "Old Prefetch data". This is completely unnecessary and should be removed. Since cleaning the Prefetch folder actually hurts application load times. Windows will simply waste time recreating the Prefetch file after it is deleted the next time that application is launched. The reason? Because the file is SUPPOSED to be there. Once it is created it will improve load times and allow the defragmenter to optimize files necessary for the launch of that application.
Windows Prefetching is NOT a cache. So cleaning it is irrelevant.
I ran a test and it deleted all sorts of files I use everyday. Not good.
Right and it will not delete PF files from applications you actually use like CCleaner does. Cleaning it hurts application load time and boot time performance. Any performance gains are placebo.
No you don't understand Cleaning this folder HURTS performance. Windows will automatically clean it but based on uninstalled applications. This is a performance hurting setting since CCleaner targets used applications.
You don't understand how it works that is why you think it needs to be cleaned.
How much time you loose can vary by the application. But this also effects boot time performance. Regardless cleaning the Prefetch folder manually has only one effect Reduced peformance. It does NOTHING to impove performance and reclaims next to no disk space since the PF files are so small. Not to mention Windows will simply recreate the PF files the next time you launch an applicaiton as it should.
There is NO reason to clean this folder once you understand how Prefetching works.
The whole prefetch thing is a crock. It does nothing. Even if you gain two nanoseconds it won't matter. My prefetch folder has been empty for months, I see no point in using it. With or without prefetch there is no real change in application launch time. It's just what people talk about and try to make you believe.
Prefetching works exactly like it says it does. After three application launches or reboots Windows will create a PF file for the application or boot item. This file is used to optimally load the application into RAM on application startup and to let the Disk Defragmenter optimize the files layout on the disk.
Of course your system will work fine without it. But you can't say it doesn't do anything because the performance increase varies depending on the application and your current system state. It is something that requires some time to take effect (3 application launches and disk defragmenter being run).
But the load speed is no real change. Who can honestly notice a few nanoseconds difference? Everything loads just as fast without Prefetch as it does with it. The recent blogs about prefetch actually working are just hype to try to get people to believe it works.
No you don't understand Cleaning this folder HURTS performance. Windows will automatically clean it but based on uninstalled applications. This is a performance hurting setting since CCleaner targets used applications.
You don't understand how it works that is why you think it needs to be cleaned.
First off those aren't recent blogs. Windows Prefetching hasn't changed since day one. And no it is not just nanoseconds it can be much, much greater then that. Shaving a few second off an application load or Windows boot is worth it. And since it does nothing but improve performance, disabling it or cleaning the folder is foolish.
There is alot of misinformation floating around the internet, how prefetching works is one of them. But hey if you want to reduce your system performance feel free. None of this changes the fact that this should not be in CCleaner.
Cleaning the Prefetch folder has the same negative effect on performance that using Memory Optimizers does.
Mastertech I'm not saying your wrong but you are being unreasonable. To say that you want a feature taken out when others use/like it is not fair. If you dont want people to use it than tell the ones on your site to uncheck that box. If mr.g took that out for the next version I gurantee you someone will come and ask that he put it back in.
First off those aren't recent blogs. Windows Prefetching hasn't changed since day one. And no it is not just nanoseconds it can be much, much greater then that. Shaving a few second off an application load or Windows boot is worth it. And since it does nothing but improve performance, disabling it or cleaning the folder is foolish.
There is alot of misinformation floating around the internet, how prefetching works is one of them. But hey if you want to reduce your system performance feel free. None of this changes the fact that this should not be in CCleaner.
Cleaning the Prefetch folder has the same negative effect on performance that using Memory Optimizers does.
Mastertech I'm not saying your wrong but you are being unreasonable. To say that you want a feature taken out when others use/like it is not fair. If you dont want people to use it than tell the ones on your site to uncheck that box. If mr.g took that out for the next version I gurantee you someone will come and ask that he put it back in.
It shouldn't be there. Should Mr. G include every other useless tweak in CCleaner too? It has nothing to do with what people want. If people don't understand how something works they will request more useless features. Cleaning the prefetch folder is a myth, useless and reduces performance.
Well sorry to tell you but when I clean my prefetch it doesn't seem to reduce performance any on my end....and like I said before I don't really care.
You probably have prefetching disabled for all I know. None of which changes how prefetching works.
If you think I am wrong, link to me the Microsoft Knowledgebase article or White paper that says otherwise.
It shouldn't be there. Should Mr. G include every other useless tweak in CCleaner too? It has nothing to do with what people want. If people don't understand how something works they will request more useless features. Cleaning the prefetch folder is a myth, useless and reduces performance.
You probably have prefetching disabled for all I know. None of which changes how prefetching works.
If you think I am wrong, link to me the Microsoft Knowledgebase article or White paper that says otherwise.
Well your wrong, I do have it checked and I also have custom folders to empty out all the prefetch so you can't tell me that it reduces performance because if it did...I should know!
Well your wrong, I do have it checked and I also have custom folders to empty out all the prefetch so you can't tell me that it reduces performance because if it did...I should know!
Know what? I don't even know if you have it enabled properly to begin with. We are usually talking in seconds here but it can be more depending on your system state and the application. There are many factors to this and if you don't understand how it works then you will continue to believe cleaning out the folder does something.
What do you think cleaning out the folder actually does BTW?