Keep your C drive clear of unwanted files

[Sea Biscuit]

I am by no means a computer expert.

My C drive always seem to be full all 8 GB of it and it kept on sending me warnings to clear all the unnecessary files on the C drive.

I did not have the faintest idea what to do about it until I called an expert computer technician.

First of all he reformatted my windows and the he gave me an expert tip on how to keep the C drive clear of all the unwanted files which seem to collect on your C drive when you are browsing the net and chatting.

Here is what he told me to do.

Press Start. Press run. type prefetch in the window and press ok

Any files that you see come up you simply delete the files

You do this twice only the 2nd time you type %temp% and delete all the files there as well.

Then you go to the recycle bin and delete those files as well.

You do this every day or every 2nd day.

I am happy to report that my computer has never run so smoothly before.

[Dave Schwartz]

LOL - He gave you good advice but did not tell you what you were doing or why.

Essentially, Prefetch was Microsoft's bright idea to load programs faster.

Whenever a program loads, there are certain things that have to happen. Short version is that the proper resources must be allocated to the program.

So, Microsoft's genius idea was to note what a program needs to do upon loading and (basically) prepare those resources for the program.

Unfortunately, Windows occasionally corrupts the file for a given program (or the program changes with a new upgrade) and suddenly the program will not run well or possibly not at all.


Funny thing was when I read the title of your post I thought it had to do with the sheer volume of data files. I did a full virus scan of my primary computer the other day. There were over three million files.


Regards,
Dave Schwartz

[JustRalph]

it's a good tip......... kill them and then reboot........... don't do it if any programs are open..........

I do it when something slows to a crawl

[Sea Biscuit]

Dave Thanks for the response.

I don't think I had a problem of sheer volume of data files.

Since I started doing this my video quality to see horse races has improved 100% and the the computer seems to run faster whenever I try to open files.

Before my horse racing video was stop and go and the computer was generally very sluggish.

[SchagFactorToWin]

Prefetch is actually a good thing. For instance, here is a test done showing various start-up times: http://blog.tune-up.com/tips-and-tricks/will-tweaking-windows-prefetch-folder-allow-for-a-faster-startup/

[racko]

cannot get passed CFDAF5.temp and it was created this morning. Thanks in advance

[Dave Schwartz]

Every time a program runs it will create a new prefetch file.

[Robert Goren]

cannot get passed CFDAF5.temp and it was created this morning. Thanks in advance I had the same problem with a couple of files. I clicked on properties for that file and hide it. Then exited run and started over again. You won't get rid of that file, but you can go back to getting rid of the rest of them. It did seem to speed things up when I was done.

[Robert Goren]

Correct me if I am wrong, It is the temp files that are slowing things down.

[Pace Cap'n]

"Prefetch" is a feature of the Firefox and Google browsers as well. They try to out-guess you as to which page(s) you might click next, and download them in advance just in case.

Disabling this feature will increase system resources to some degree.


cybernetnews.com/helpful-tip-disable-firefox-prefetching/ (http:///cybernetnews.com/helpful-tip-disable-firefox-prefetching/)

[Tom]

What's next fo MS.....prerollover? prespeak? :rolleyes::D

[kitts]

I have great success running free software "CrapCleaner" every week

[Tom]

I run CC at least once a day - sometimes 2-3 times.

[Robert Goren]

I run CC at least once a day - sometimes 2-3 times.:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Sea Biscuit]

I run CC at least once a day - sometimes 2-3 times.

I just installed Crap cleaner.

It installed ok but when I open it, it opens just for a second and then closes by itself.

Any help you can give me how to run this program would be appreciated.

[Tom]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

No, no.....I run the real program! :D

[JustRalph]

Correct me if I am wrong, It is the temp files that are slowing things down.

some are, but the ones that are working right actually help you run faster on certain programs. But when they are old or dupes, the software reads both and decides which one to use, which can slow it down a little. Or if the temp it is using is corrupt (often) it will drag the program to a snails pace. Now triple that effect if you say have 20 of the same temp?

You can see where it will help sometimes and really help others, just depends on the state of your machine at any given time. This was a huge problem back in Win 3.11 and Win95

[Tom]

I see a lot of "processes" running using a lot of memory......how can I tell what is really needed and what is crap?

Like winword.exe.....I am not using Word, what is this doing?

[bigmack]

I see a lot of "processes" running using a lot of memory......how can I tell what is really needed and what is crap?

Like winword.exe.....I am not using Word, what is this doing?
If your not using Word it might be your using Outlook. Looks like winword.exe runs for either.

Anytime you have a question about processes look 'em up here and it will tell you what their role is. Don't buy any of the crap they try & sell you though.

http://www.processlibrary.com/

[Tom]

Just what I was looking for!
Thanks Mac.

[PaceAdvantage]

Ralph,

I've heard mixed messages about deleting files in the PreFetch directory...you're saying it's ok?

I am still running Vista...there is a ReadyBoot subdirectory in the PreFetch directory. Safe to get rid of that too?

[JustRalph]

Ralph,

I've heard mixed messages about deleting files in the PreFetch directory...you're saying it's ok?

I am still running Vista...there is a ReadyBoot subdirectory in the PreFetch directory. Safe to get rid of that too?

Readyboot and readyboost are caching functions that cache data to make the system boot faster and some programs run faster, especially if you are using a flash drive etc. It is created by a driver for whatever device wants to use it. I have never heard of any problems from removing it (the driver will probably recreate it next time you access the device) but I don't think it is necessary as long as you are not having problems.

I only kill the prefetch and temps when I think something is acting slow or whatever, but if you want to do it more often, the worst would be you might end up having to install a driver or piece of software......but I know people who have a program that does it every day, and they never have any problems.

[Tom]

I read in the Sunday paper computer column today that you should compress your mail...never heard of that one, but I did it, and I do see some improvement - not world shaking, but noticeable.

[Robert Goren]

My computer does that on its own. It also doesn't hurt to empty your deleted e-mail file ever so often or at least a large part of it.

[gillenr]

I use OE & compact all folders weekly - out of habit from when I had a small HD. Does anyone who uses MS Office Outlook know if there is a corresponding process?
Thanks

[andicap]

i have never had such a problem with Crap Cleaner. Are you sure all of your Web browsers are closed when you open it up? If so, I would try and reinstall the program and make sure all other applications are closed when you do so.

One thing I would warn you on CC installation. If you don't click off the option, it will install a Yahoo browser bar. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty damn up to here in browser bars.

[wilderness]

I read in the Sunday paper computer column today that you should compress your mail...never heard of that one, but I did it, and I do see some improvement - not world shaking, but noticeable.

Tom,
Some years back and with the earlier versions of OE there was a problem (and limit) if too many files exceeded "X" capacity within the "Inbox" folder. When the limit was exceeded, OE would crash and delete the Inbox Folder. Upon reopening, OE would create a new Inbox folder and everything previous was lost.

I've always used structured sub-folders (utilizing Filters) for emails, and to relieve the volume away from Inbox.

I just compact once a month today, however I recall the default setting for OE and Compacting being done more frequently and automatic, however I'm not sure what built in criteria is used to make that determination.

I may be able to dig out some references to this if your interested?

[Dave Schwartz]

I use OE.

I do not know how many messages are in my SPAM folder. I have been collecting them for a couple of years. (Whenever my SPAM Bully needs to be installed, I retrain it in about 45 minutes.)

But I can tell you there are 58,929 messages in that folder marked as "unread."

I can only assume that there are several times that marked as "read." The file is just over 1gb.

[wilderness]

Dave,
Once upon a time my horse activities were very email intensive. As a result of that I had (and in fact still do, however they've been exported from the OE software and into local directories for easier reference (i. e., Copernic) many saved email.

Searching those saved correspondences within OE was a real PITA, I'm unable to imagine how more difficult it would be with "saved spam", and especially since at one time I was getting around 200 spam's a day.

BTW, my active OE has 95 current folders, which are quite organized into a file structure that I've maintained since 97 or 98. That 95-folder number is despite a recent cleanup and deletion of a bunch of folders.