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Thread: Windows\Prefetch

  1. #1
    Heinzmann
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    Windows\Prefetch

    What is the purpose of the "Prefech" directory under Windows XP? There sure are some supicious file names.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    4,785
    Prefetch Directory

    To minimize seeking even further, every three days or so, during system idle periods, the Task Scheduler organizes a list of files and directories in the order that they are referenced during a boot or application start, and stores the list in a file named \Windows\Prefech\Layout.ini. Figure 1 shows the contents of a prefetch directory, highlighting the layout file. Then it launches the system defragmenter with a command-line option that tells the defragmenter to defragment based on the contents of the file instead of performing a full defrag. The defragmenter finds a contiguous area on each volume large enough to hold all the listed files and directories that reside on that volume and then moves them in their entirety into that area so that they are stored one after the other. Thus, future prefetch operations will even be more efficient because all the data to be read in is now stored physically on the disk in the order it will be read. Since the number of files defragmented for prefetching is usually only in the hundreds, this defragmentation is much faster than full defragmentations.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...l/XPKernel.asp
    Bukhari:V3B48N826 “The Prophet said, ‘Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is because of the deficiency of a woman’s mind.’”

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Posts
    590
    I have WinXP Professional and I haven't got any 'prefetch' directory. Where abouts is this directory? Just in 'c:\'?

    Maybe it was created by a program you installed or something like that.

    Greg
    \"Do you know what people are most afraid of?
    What they don\'t understand.
    When we don\'t understand, we turn to our assumptions.\"
    -- William Forrester

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Posts
    590
    Ahhh, I searched for 'prefech' (without the 't') as Heinzmann stated and got no results. Didn't see your post there Tedob1, good info.

    Greg
    \"Do you know what people are most afraid of?
    What they don\'t understand.
    When we don\'t understand, we turn to our assumptions.\"
    -- William Forrester

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