Make Your Apps Load Faster...Much Faster

31K4L · Post by **31K4L** » 24 Mar 2007, 06:51

okay sorry. but i did that, just forgot it when i wrote my replais. but i didnt work on my com

Post by **alien100** » 24 Mar 2007, 10:25

31K4L wrote:okay sorry. but i did that, just forgot it when i wrote my replais. but i didnt work on my com

do u have windows?

crazyhorse · Post by **crazyhorse** » 28 May 2007, 10:42

cool trick, this works with windowx xp pro and CS3, I can verify that...one question though, I noticed that the first time I loaded CS3 it took the normal time to load, then everytime after it loaded much faster, I know this is because it is using the pre-fetch after the first time, but will it still be able to load from the pre-fetch after I reboot?? Or does the prefetch get cleared on shutdown?

Post by **bad_brain** » 28 May 2007, 10:51

hm, usually prefetch is not flushed, else prefetching would make no sense....so it should work as fast as before after a reboot...

odohvp · Post by **odohvp** » 14 Aug 2007, 10:19

Nice post, keep it up!!

n3rd · Post by **n3rd** » 14 Aug 2007, 10:40

To change settings for your Prefetch folder, you may need to take a trip into the system's Registry. You can do this with Regedit.

Start => Run => type Regedit => Enter

Now that you are in the Registry, you can change the way that Prefetch behaves by making a change in the registry. This is helpful when you want to alter Prefetch or disable Prefetch completely. Low resource (memory, hard disk space, etc) systems may need this functionality disabled to get the system to run more efficiently.

When the Registry Editor Dialog box opens, navigate to this value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

n the right side pane, look for the key named EnablePrefetcher. The value of this key represents how Prefetch will operate.

Values you can choose from include:

0: Disable

and prefetch is disabled.

hope this covers all.

EnvyHax · Post by **EnvyHax** » 07 Oct 2007, 16:37

Is it a good idea to disable it all together?

Post by **DNR** » 08 Oct 2007, 08:34

There are problems caused by dumping your prefetch folder.

The 'rumor' that prefetch loads file maps for every program you ever run into memory is false. It only prefetches the programs file mapping when you select that program to run. So if you never run a program again, it will never run the prefetch for that program again.

Windows automatically culls the folder at 128 entries, so this folder will never grow beyond that. FIFO. Thats usually every couple of months.

Read proof here:

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000743.html

Sorry to be the pisser...
DNR

Post by **bad_brain** » 08 Oct 2007, 12:40

well, that right in general DNR...BUT I have to disagree a little.
prefetching is not loading the apps into RAM, that's right....it loads "infos" about those apps like the position in the MFT so they are loaded faster when you start them (simply because the position of the app is known already and no search have to be done).
those "infos" occupy some RAM too...ok, that's just a very small amount, but imo there is no need to load infos about apps that have been deleted already. also the prefetch files are used for the built-in XP defragmentation tool, so when you have a lot of outdated entries there you could cause more fragmentation because space for non-existing files is reserved.

I also can't validate the max. amount of 128 entries, but that might be because I am still using an almost unpatched XP version (SP1 is the only patch I have installed).

so imo flushing the prefetch folder once in a while makes sense, but it depends on habits of the user (lots of installing/deinstalling for example).
disabling prefetching makes NO sense because it really slows down the boot process a lot.

I know, I am a bean counter....

n3rd · Post by **n3rd** » 08 Oct 2007, 13:37

I just need a new pc XD.

btw fyi I was on a small lan party last saturday 6th of oct, there where some militairy dudes there, the guys bought damn expensive computers, some nice new ddr3 memory 4 gig total, the memory alone was 1k euro's. so thats like 1.4k dollars XD.

Post by **DNR** » 09 Oct 2007, 09:38

yer killin me n3rd > going off topic

B_B, lets keep counting those beans.
One major point I agree not to disagree with you

If you install and uninstall a lot of appz, then yea I would favor stricter house cleaning protocols. Even CCleaner can purge the prefetch for you. The main reason I would purge the prefetch is to delete evidence of my activities - good housekeeping habits are hard to break

The idea is not to disable it completely, choose instead option 2, boot prefetch or leave it on 3, both (recommended by OS)

The biggest exception is if you are trying to run new OS on a older box, a slower processor, less RAM, etc. If you need to tweak down your box because your apps take 5 minutes to load, you have to consider upgrading to a faster box. Some programs just take awhile to load, so if you need to do minor task like checking email or surfing the web, you might just leave the program minimized.
The average size of the .pf files were like 8kb to 77kb, right now my prefetch folder is 1.17mb, this is on a 30gb hd. BTW yes you can delete the layout.ini file in the prefetch folder too.
The controversy did include how prefetch messes with defrag - they say you should run defrag every time you mess with prefetch files - if you are going to do this, do it on a large scale, dump every prefetch file you reconise as an old install, save at least the popular apps you do use, trust me

Then run defrag. Dumping prefetch files releases those spaces on your hd - for example if I dump 1mb from pretech, it should release 1mb from the hd on defrag. Is it worth all the trouble, maybe on a shitty old 486 with 128mb of ram, I donno

I do have SP2 on my install, but I didn't bother to count the entries in the folder. My install/uninstall activities have been mild, so I do see some old stuff that I removed like a year ago. The SP2 seems stable, so I recommend the install, it'll patch your vulns

DNR

Post by **bad_brain** » 09 Oct 2007, 13:28

hm, ok, an update:
seems it's right that the max. amount of prefetch entries IS 128, even on my unpatched system. yesterday I had 122 entries, so I kept an eye on it...I've installed some apps today (really important ones like Wolfenstein ET and Armagetron

) and checked the prefetch entries again....just 36 now, so it was purged.

from what I've found setting prefetching to 1 it should speed up the start of applications because:
1 == prefetching application data
2 == prefetching services and system data
3 == disable prefetching
but how big the performance increase in reality is depends on every single system configuration I guess, I have 2 GB RAM and optimized anything that makes really sense like disabling unneeded services, keeping the registry clean, etc....so not much space left for remarkable optimizations anyway.

P.S. and no, I will never install SP2, simply because I see no use in it. the only reason why I installed SP1 is because I needed it to enable USB 2.0 support for my mainboard. most of the patches only fix flaws that have been caused by earlier patches anyway...that's the MS way to keep the customers in a steady state of paranoia and make them feel that they really get something for the money they paid.

dru2691 · Post by **dru2691** » 09 Dec 2007, 18:48

sweet, thanks!

Post by **floodhound2** » 09 Dec 2007, 23:41

Worked great for me on Flash CS3 Professional.

plato_dreams · Post by **plato_dreams** » 05 Feb 2008, 01:39

nice trick.works awsome..

suck-o.com

Make Your Apps Load Faster...Much Faster

shotgun approach

on topic, to delete or not to delete, thats the question