As we said above, the prefetch folder is an index file (PF format file) left after the program is started. Therefore, as long as the index file is not automatically generated by the system, the size of the prefetched folder can be effectively controlled to prevent it from becoming a "disaster" that delays the startup of windows XP.

Click Start → Run, enter msconfig, and press Enter to open the system configuration utility. Switch to the Services tab and locate the project Task Scheduler. The task scheduler can be said to be the "culprit" of junk index files. When it runs in the background, it will create an index file on our hard disk for each program started with Windows and put it in the Prefetch folder. As long as we uncheck this item, we can "slim down" the prefetch folder.

2. Set the read-ahead object

Because the prefetch folder contains all the indexes of the programs started by Windows XP, we can make certain settings to make the system only read part of the contents when it starts, and not the unspecified contents. This can also effectively speed up the startup speed of Windows XP.

Click start → run, enter "regedit", open the registry editor, and expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\

Current control set \ control \ session manager \ memory management \ prefetch parameters sub-item, double-click the "enable prefetch" key item in the right window to open the editing window and make pre-reading settings for Windows XP. Read-ahead settings corresponding to specific values are as follows:

0—— Cancel the pre-reading function;

1- read-only application;

2—— Read only WindowsXP system files in advance;

3- Read Windows XP system files and applications in advance.

Here we can set the value to "2", that is, only read the system files of Windows XP itself, and ignore the index files generated by other applications.