Delete Prefetch

[toby7]

Please add to your delete list. C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch

There is NO need to keep these files.

 

 

Thanks!

[marmite]

Hi toby7

 

Prefetch is listed under 'Advanced' on the 'Windows' tab ... top of the list in fact.

 

So you won't agree with this article then. Do you expect everyone to take your word for the 'uselessness' of prefetch data or were you going to justify your assertion?

 

If you don't want to use prefetch at all why don't you disable it?

[Andavari]

CCleaner only deletes old prefetch data when it's no longer used. Windows on its own also will manage that folder. Therefore blinding deleting everything in that folder isn't even necessary.

[metalj]

I agree with Andavari.

Just go to the Advanced section of the cleaner and tick Old Prefetch Data.

[marmite]

The only problem with ccleaner's mechanism (if the article is accurate) is that ccleaner deletes prefetch older than two weeks. I wouldn't call that 'old'. Perhaps the devs could confirm that cut-off point?

 

I was not advocating deleting everything in my first reply - however if that's the approach the OP chooses to take it's probably easier to just disable it in the first place.

 

I don't regularly clear prefetch at all - I see no benefit in doing so.

[Augeas]

I know from experience (I have the prefetch option ticked) that entries 14 days old are deleted. In my case that's a benefit, as I never reach the prefetch entry count for Windows to clean it up (which is I think around 136). I have around 60 or 70 entries so the old stuff would never be cleared, so CC does it for me.

 

The thing I dislike about prefetch - and I believe the advantages are such that it should be enabled - is that it catches a lot of dross. Just look at Layout.ini and see what it includes in its auto-defrag and loadup routines: temp int files, sys restore, lang files i shall never use etc.

[marmite]

The thing I dislike about prefetch ... is that it catches a lot of dross. Just look at Layout.ini and see what it includes in its auto-defrag and loadup routines: temp int files, sys restore, lang files i shall never use etc.

Interesting point. My Layout.ini is huge compared to the number of prefetch entries. Though it contains a lot of duff entries ... software I've never even had installed (due to it being an OEM image I guess).

 

The only time I've ever bothered with prefetch is where I've had problems at work that have required me to clean it.

 

Might look at this Layout.ini now out of curiosity though

[Augeas]

I think that Layout.ini is created from info held in the other prefetch files. If you delete it then Hey Presto it pops back up again exactly the same as it was before, with all the same dross in. I believe that each pf file has a list of last looked at or loaded files, and Layout.ini acccumulates all these files in its enormous list. Prefetch then runs a defrag of the files in the list every few days, another reason for keeping a tight prefetch list.

[DennisD]

The old "CCleaner Beginners Guide" explains that prefetch files are deleted if they haven't been accessed for 14 days.

 

So the entries used on a regular basis would probably never be deleted.

 

Although the new docs site explains this differently, I'm guessing the prefetch clean routine may still be the same as described in the original guide.