tech e blog

12/19/2006

How to: Make Windows XP Boot Faster

"G" shows us how to make Windows XP boot faster by tweaking prefetch values in the registry. If you've tried this, does it work? More information here. Video after the jump. Here's how prefetch works (courtesy of Intelliadmin):
Yesterday you used MS Word, and Duke Nukem 3D. Today you boot your system to check e-mail. It sees parts of these two programs in the prefetch folder and loads them into memory before windows completes the boot process. The benefit is faster application launch times. If you really wanted to use MS Word, it would pop up really quick when you double clicked on it

This entry was posted on 12/19/2006 04:46am and is filed under Computers, Video .
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There are 17 comments about this post (1 pages).

1
Could anyone else read the key that was changed?
2
yes it is ENABLEPREFETCHER for some reason mine is set to 3 so i dont know about this.
3
Checkout this for more details - - http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Gaining-Speed-Empty-Prefetch-XP.html
4
Nothing changed that I can tell-
5
What key whas changed..? Couldn't see..!
6
I think he changed that default value of '3' to '5'? Can anyone confirm?
7
if you set ENABLEPREFETCHER from 3 (use for booting and system - what it's supposed to be) to 2 (use for boot only) your system will boot up faster but then that memory isn't used anymore once the computer is booted! So the computer will boot faster but takes longer for it's tasks
8
Not true. Be careful. Please read http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html about "enableprefetcher" parameter
9
Here's some add'l info that should be much easier to read and understand: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Gaining-Speed-Empty-Prefetch-XP.html
10
Awesome, this worked, Windows loads twice as fast for me now :)
11
I can't either read the value that has to be changed. They name is EnablePrefetcher but I can't read the value! Can someone help?
12
Just click the link that's provided in the text right above the video.
13
Enable Prefetcher was set to 5.
14
EnablePrefetcher Negative [HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters] "EnablePrefetcher" Myth - "Setting any value higher then 3 to EnablePrefetcher will improve performance." Reality - "The Prefetcher component in Windows XP is part of the Memory Manager, and helps to shorten the amount of time it takes to start Windows and programs. This is a new feature in Windows XP which improves application load times and Windows boot times automatically. The slower your system and the larger an application, the more Prefetching helps. Even high end systems benefit from prefetching with large, slow loading applications, such as large games. By default Prefetching is enabled in Windows XP and already configured optimally. The following list describes the different possible values for the EnablePrefetcher registry key. By default the Prefetcher is set to a value of 3 in Windows XP. Values such as 4, 5, 6 ect... do not exist and are thus useless. Leave this at the default value of 3 which is already optimal for maximum performance on both Windows XP Boot and initial application launches." -
15
[...] The myth of decreasing Windows XP boot times by using the “prefetch” feature in Windows XP is gaining traction again after being mentioned in popular tech blogs.  [...]
16
Well, the prefetch is not good and the tip of increasing it from 3-5 is not true. The folks over at AskStudent do a good job of explaining this myth of prefetch
17
This is a Myth the default value is 3, 5 is a non functional value which makes the prefetcher use the default of 3. This does nothing and is useless. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html
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