Faster Startup with Windows Prefetch

Earlier this month I had a huge reaction to my post about cleaning up the Windows “Temporary Internet Folder”. Comments from readers provided many other great tips but there was some confusion over one of my major points. Even if you don’t use the stand alone Internet Explorer browser, other components of Windows use this folder so if you missed this post check it out.

See: Free #1 Tweak to Improve Windows Performance

A few people also mentioned the Windows Prefetch folder. Prefetch is a pretty cool feature that started with Windows XP, was improved in Vista and even more optimized in Windows 7. There are two primary functions provided by the Prefetch system both designed to speed up your boot and recover time.

The first methodology used by Prefetch is to tell Widows which programs or code segments are commonly used at startup by multiple programs or processes. Instead of the having Windows load the same code segment multiple times, it’s loaded once and available for all the programs who use it.

The second focus of Prefetch is to help the disk layout of programs which are commonly loaded at startup. Window keeps track of commonly loaded programs and will check how these programs are stored on your hard drive or other storage device. If needed, the disk will be de-fragmented and organized during idle time so that the programs are easily accessible at boot time. This information is stored in a text file layout.ini found in the prefetch folder.

Other memory optimization information is stored here and used by Windows to decide which code segment should be in active memory and what can be cached. Under Windows XP, many background programs like virus scanners which aren’t common startup programs may get more attention than they deserve. While it’s been fixed starting with Vista, it can still be a problem under Windows XP. If this becomes a problem the solution is a simple reboot. There has always been the controversy over keeping your computer on over night or to reboot each day. I now recommend occasional rebooting which will also help refresh the Prefetch information.

The Prefetch folder is another good reason to keep your list of auto startup programs to a minimum. Using programs like WinPatrol can clean up which programs are auto started and thus stored in Prefetch. Adding WinPatrol PLUS will help you decide which programs are really required.

Delete Prefetch Files?
A lot of tipsters advocate going into the Prefetch folder and deleting the files so it can start with new information. I’ve been playing with this and while I haven’t seen any difference, I don’t see this causing any harm. The next few times you reboot it might take a little longer but that’s expected. I have determined that Windows does do some garbage collection on its own and limits the number of .pf files in this folder to 128 or less.

Microsoft will pay you to forward this Email.
If you believe this one I have another myth for you. An online tip I’ve seen recommends modifying the registry value used by the prefetch mechanism.
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

There are four values used here by Windows.
0 – Disable Prefetch
1 – Use Application Launch Prefetch only
2 – Default Boot Prefetch
3 – Maximum Prefetch

If you read that you can use a value higher than 3 don’t believe it. I’ve heard from people who swear they see faster performance but there’s no technology to back up the claims.

I’ll be doing some more research on how prefetch, SuperFetch and other memory optimization is done in Windows 7 but for now I recommend just letting Windows do its thing.

Four Secret Reasons Why Win7 is Ten Times Better

It’s no secret that I’ve never been a fan of Windows Vista. I really wanted to love it but even as a designated Microsoft MVP I couldn’t drink the kool-aid(1) nor did I promote Vista to family and friends.

So, what makes Windows 7 so much better that I’ve changed my tune? I’m still happy with Windows XP but I am encouraging folks to invest their money and time to upgrade to Win7. I’ve put together four reasons that may not be secret but you may not hear a lot about due to their technical nature.

MultiCore Processing
When Microsoft designed Vista they saw a future in 64 bit machines. It was a reasonable assumption but they were a little ahead of the times. While x64 CPU’s are gaining in popularity the technology of cheap multiple core processors still dominates the market. MultiCore processors give you the power of multiple CPU’s within a single chip. Windows 7 doubles the number of your CPU’s.

In any modern OS there is a system that schedules which programs or processes run when and at what priority. It’s like a traffic cop inside your computer. Vista was optimized to easily handle 64 bit operations. Its traffic cop was trained to expect a lot of big Cadillac's and SUV’s to be using the data road.

The Windows 7 traffic cop understands that multiple core CPUs are still popular so it’s still ready for the SUV’s but knows in between there will be a lot of Sport cars, Smart Cars and even Motorcycles on the data roads.

If you have a dual-core, quad-core CPU you will be thrilled with the increased performance. Using Hyper Threading technology from Intel, a virtual core is created for each physical core adding yet more multiprocessing computing power.

Solid State Drives
I’ve been preaching the future of Solid State Drives over many years. While the prices may still be out of the reach of many, they’re continuing to come down. SSD’s are so much quicker than traditional drives which have moving parts. They’re also so much more dependable. Windows 7 understands how data is stored on Solid State Drives and is optimized to handle their unique operation.

General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit
You may have noticed over the years the video cards inside your computer have grown in both size and power. As gaming and video popularity has grown computer manufactures have greatly increased graphical power. Modern video cards now have their own processors(GPU’s) and plenty of memory. Windows 7 can now take advantage of some of this processing power when it’s not being used for rendering graphics. If you have a powerful video card from NVidia or AMD(ATI) you’ll most likely benefit from this technical addition in Windows 7.

Network Startup Time
Quick startup may not be a secret but most folks don’t realize that Microsoft has put a priority on WiFi network discovery on startup. At least 2-3 times a week my wife Cindi would ask me if the network was down when she went to read the morning paper online. The problem was, Windows appeared to be all ready for use but it wasn’t. The cursor reverted from an hourglass to the arrow but Windows was still doing many background tasks including trying to find the default network. So while everything appeared to be ready for action, the internet was still a few minutes away from use. In most cases, you’ll notice Windows 7 will have you connected as quickly as you can load your browser.

References:
Engineering Windows 7: Support and Q&A for Solid State Drives

Toms Hardware: Win7 Desktop Graphics Loves Multi-core CPUs

CNet: Intel, Microsoft Highlight Windows 7 Improvements

MVP Global Summit 2009

(1) Note: While I did make reference to the common expression about drinking the kool-aid it really bugs me when I hear this. Most people relate this expression to the Jonestown mass suicide when in fact the followers of Jim Jones drank grape cyanide-laced Flavor-Aid.