Prefetch folder optimization is a hoax?

3 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/prefetch-folder-optimization-is-a-hoax.36085/

*www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000743.html

Found this article today. I regularly and 'religiously' go through the process of advising users to clean the prefetch folder at my office when they complain that their system is slow. Seems I was taken for a ride.

Why, even in this forum, search threw up 49 threads recommending it.

Any ideas, folks, if this is true? It look genuine.

i agree. check my comments here *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7879&highlight=start+shutdown

it says :
Generally people also recommend emptying the Prefetch directory every
week. But i believe Window uses this directory to speed up launching
applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. By using this index, XP can launch files and applications faster. So, by emptying the directory, are we not, most likely slowing down launching applications; even during start-up ?

in fact windows already automatically cleans this folder at 128 entries !

Alas !! yet another myth .. see a lot more myths here *mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html