Question about CCleaner, please

[ramblinrose]

Hello! I used CCleaner for about a year now. I like it but I recently learned something that  I didn't know about so  I am asking for help...about using ccleaner. So my question is about *old prefetch data*? Someone suggested I should uncheck that...I don't use advanced..too nervous about that and once in awhile I used issues....What do you think about *old prefetch data* should I uncheck? Thank you....hugs, Rose

[GR@PH;<'S]

ramblinrose,
see Application Load Times

Recently CCleaner has added an internet urban legend as a cleaning option, "Old Prefetch Data". Cleaning the Prefetch folder is an internet Myth that simply will not die due to the gross ignorance of many people in regards to how Windows XP Prefetching works. These same people generally recommend other bogus advice such as disabling Windows Prefetching completely and adding /Prefetch:1 to desktop shortcuts.

"Bottom line: You will NOT improve Windows performance by cleaning out the Prefetch folder. You will, in fact, degrade Windows performance by cleaning out the Prefetch folder."

as a guide to set up of CCleaner see CCleaner Set up

GR@PH;<'S   :breakkie:

[jsky]

I've been playing with the "Prefetch" for years. I'll let it go for months and months without touching it. Then clean it out weekly to see the differences. (Have been playing for a long time with it)

If you clean it out. You will lose startup time for the first couple of reboots. I recommend rebooting three times to get things back to a normal startup. And on the average, only gain a couple of seconds startup time by cleaning it out.

The prefetches "layout.ini" file will rebuild itself. (rebuild really isn't the word) every three days. But the files in the folder will always stay there. The "layout.ini" file just reworks itself to change the priority of the files it prefetches. If you have a program you only used once. It will give it a low priority and not waste time fully preloading it up on a bootup. On the other hand, a program you use allot will get a high priority and be more ready to act when you need it.
I have found really no real bases to clean out the prefetch folder, except maybe on a yearly or maybe bi-yearly bases. And that's if you use or more-so remove numerous different programs.

I have seen the differences to cleaning out the prefetch folder. And like I said earlier. If you haven't removed a whole bunch of old programs from your PC. Then cleaning it out is a waste of time. And will slow things down a couple of seconds for the first couple of bootups. But after that you will not really notice any difference.

In my opinion, Just leave the prefetching alone. And let the system handle it. It takes care of itself just fine and dandy.

[ramblinrose]

WOW Very interesting! I am soooo glad I asked! Now I know for sure.... :D Thank you both very much and Gra@ph I appreciated so much that you gave me links....very easy to understand for me. I will send it to my friends who I recommended about ccleaner. I didn't know about slim version, wish I had that in the first place...should I uninstall and use that slim version?? or go over it? or wait for next new version?

I have another question about ad-aware se but  I will start another thread....hugs, Rose  :rose:

[GR@PH;<'S]

ramblinrose,

should I uninstall and use that slim version??

This depends on weather you installed or not and use the toolbar if you do not use it then Yes you could remove it then replace it with a fresh copy.

GR@PH;<'S   :breakkie:

[ramblinrose]

I didn't install yahoo toolbar with ccleaner..I didn't know about slim version. Yes then  I will go ahead uninstall ccleaner and start over. What about registry backups I had? Should I go ahead delete that first? It's in my Doc folder when I used issues and it asked me if I want to back up first. hugs, Rose

[GR@PH;<'S]

ramblinrose,

What about registry backups

You can keep them as they are registry backups.

GR@PH;<'S   :breakkie: