Prefetch? On, Or Off?

2010MegaScooter · 23 Jan 2011

Prefetch? On, Or Off?

Dumb Question..
Is It Best To Have Prefetch Service On? Or Off? Does It Make Any Difference In Speed?
Thanks

EzioAuditore · 23 Jan 2011

It may or may not provide faster boot time but one thing it does is that it does speeds up the loading of programs you use. If you want to see the difference yourself, clear out the Prefetch folder's contents and reboot. I personally have it on but i do have Ccleaner to delete old prefetch files which doesn't contain much about my recent usage. Some articles you'd like to read: 1. http://www.jasonclarke.net/general/f...ing-explained/ 2. http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2005/04...efetch-folder/ 3. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...refetch-folder

DeVandal · 23 Jan 2011

In general, performance improvements provided by the Prefetch service far outweigh any performances provided by it's absence.

pparks1 · 23 Jan 2011

I leave Superfetch and stuff on. Even with my SSD, coming from RAM is faster than coming from my hard drive.

2010MegaScooter · 24 Jan 2011

So, Imma Go Back To Regedit and turn it back on for the best performance

Yes? :)

logicearth · 25 Jan 2011

What ever guide you are following, Stop following it and reverse any changes you made.
Whatever it is, I can already tell the guide is filled with nothing but steaming pile of c*** advice.

DeVandal · 25 Jan 2011

Where did that come from? Even this forum has members who offer that tweak.

Just because it's on the menu doesn't mean you have to eat it.

logicearth · 25 Jan 2011

DeVandal said:

Where did that come from? Even this forum has members who offer that tweak.

Just because it's on the menu doesn't mean you have to eat it.

There is no valid reason to disable Prefetch. None. Even on an SSD drive Prefetch's index is invaluable. Disabling Prefetch solves no issues The only reason I have ever seen why someone says to disable Prefetch are those that do not understand what it does or is.

DeVandal · 25 Jan 2011

I agree that the tweak is misguided.

Let's assume three things are true:

The tweak is invalid in many applications
The source is steaming c***
SF includes the tweak

What does that say about this repository? Dry factual presentation of solid guidance devoid of emotional rhetoric provides for a more reliable source.

mickey megabyte · 25 Jan 2011

i thought windows automatically disables superfetch if random writes and flushes are being performed fast enough, as per a fast ssd.

or is superfetch not the same as prefetch?

Will Superfetch be disabled on SSDs?

Yes, for most systems with SSDs.

If the system disk is an SSD, and the SSD performs adequately on random reads and doesn’t have glaring performance issues with random writes or flushes, then Superfetch, boot prefetching, application launch prefetching, ReadyBoost and ReadDrive will all be disabled.

Initially, we had configured all of these features to be off on all SSDs, but we encountered sizable performance regressions on some systems. In root causing those regressions, we found that some first generation SSDs had severe enough random write and flush problems that ultimately lead to disk reads being blocked for long periods of time. With Superfetch and other prefetching re-enabled, performance on key scenarios was markedly improved.

source