superfetch and boot defrag

hello guys, i just read smth about superfetch and defragmenting boot files (at startup). i read that this both should speed up at the starup.. is that true?

if yes, why some win7 tweaker (called enhancemyse7en) recommended me to disable prefetching?

thx

 

For defragmenting boot files check this:

REgistry key for defragmenting boot files

Page defrag for defragmenting page file and some other files.

 

They know nothing about how Windows works. They also probably consider that Vista/Win7 is still build up from Windows NT3.0 like XP. Microsoft has a bunch of documentation about each operating system explaining everything on MSDN and TechNet. But, I guess reading is too hard.

In short Prefetch is a technology that "records" the memory when the Windows boot and the windows stratup applications. It then loads the "recording" onto the memory upon next Windows boot. This allows to load things faster therefor faster startup from Windows and startup applications.

Some people (usually computer enthusiasts, who seek maximum speed) used to disable Prefetch under XP for a faster boot (I'll explain after), and in exchange slower startup of the program that runs when you load the account (startup programs). Then, they remove all the startup programs and have a faster booting system all the way up to their account fully loaded.

The reason for this contradiction is that Prefetch under XP (and only under XP), doesn't work properly if you have 512MB of RAM or more, as the OS not only has an abysmal memory management where it puts everything it can I (ie: as soon as it's not being used) on the pagefile on the HDD instead of the RAM, but also due to possibly optimization problems it grabs large junk of RAM... So what happens, is that the saved memory segments goes from HDD, to RAM back to HDD, and the segments are large... so it slows down Windows boot system. The 'return to the HDD' part is because of the memory management that acts like if you are low in memory no mater how much RAM you have (that is why XP takes nothing on your RAM, but Vista just eats it like nothing, when in fact the real difference is not that big).

Since Vista, Prefetch was optimized and designed for large amount of memory (and small amounts a swell, for Win7). In addition, the OS memory management is actually very good, where the pagefile is barely used. Your HDD and even the fastest SSD you can get, are incredibly slow compared to your RAM.

I can't blame Microsoft for XP "mistake", I mean think about it: Back in XP released most computer in store shelves has 128MB of RAM and gaming systems had 256MB, and a new Windows (project name Longhorn) was supposed to be release in 2003 - it got delayed and named Vista. Back in days XP great number of features and UI required much more RAM than what people had, and this is why this memory management was ideal.

 

i uninstalled the "tweak" tool already so i got a problem..

this defragging of boot files was already enabled (reg entry had the value "Y"). to enable prefetch i need this registry entry?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters


and change the "eneble prefretch" parameter to 3?

if yes: prefetch and superfetch both have the value 3

seems like its enabled anyway.. and all should be fine?

sad.. i hoped for a faster boot or programm startup (50seconds until log in screen.. 10 seconds until all programs loaded = razer driver,kaspersky,atk hotkey).

thanks for help

 

What are the specs on your laptop? 50 seconds isn't exactly our of the ordinary.

My Dell takes 40 secs to boot to the login screen. Then another 40 or so to load everything up. But the last time I booted that thing was like a month ago. It takes about 2 seconds to wakeup so I can't complain. My HP actually takes longer to wake.

 

asus g50vt-a1

dual core 2 duo 2,53 ghz
4gb ram
9800M GS 512mb

boot = 50secs until login screen

i neveru se sleep (only hibernate.. and resuming also takes ages).. as in sleep mode all the led´s on my laptop are on

 

That's not too bad. My Dell's T7500 is a 2.2 Ghz, so it sounds just about right. Then again, it's running Vista compared to your Win7. Not a fair comparison, but your boot time is right around there. It may or may not benefit from tweaking. I would find another asus to compare with.

Edit:
Funny thing is, keep in mind my installation is a mostly untweaked installation. I got Superfetch, search indexing, and all that good stuff turned on. Half of those tweaks won't save me anytime in the long run, but rather will kill time.

 

Some anti-virus program perform a virus scan every time Windows starts-up. I suspect that is what happens. Also, it depends on your rest of your hardward. For example, I have the X-Fi sound card on my desktop computer. Vista 64-bit startup quick - 30sec timed. A soon as I install the X-Fi drivers i have have to count 14 green bars passing.

Also, about every 3 days or so, Vista/Win7 performs a boot optimization.
Deep defragmenting (ie: using a third party program) your HDD helps as well, but you lose the boot optimization and will have to wait for the next cycle for the boot optimization. Also, the restart your computer several times help optimizing the startup. Boot optimization is performed when your computer is idle after startup.

 

My above post applies to you as well.

Superfecth and Prefetch make your computer faster, not slower. Killing them slows down your computer. Superfetch learns what you run and when you run it the most, and pre-laods the application MEMORY segement before you do. This showed to have programs startup up to 6 times faster then without superfetch. Of course, it depends on the application.. some might be 2 times, or less.

 

superfetch did in my case give me 7 seconds faster boot time, and thats on two ssd with raid0, an environment where a lot of people say, one could disable superfetch as the ssd are fast enough. nothing is faster than loading the date before it gets requested.

 

Well it depend... see superfetch looks at everything... so it can grab even setups if you load. So usually after you install Win7 and all your applications superfetch and prefetch does a reverse affected as it loads all the wrong thing.

Remember that Superfetch doesn't look at program names and all that, but rather memory data (based on my understanding of the system).

 

superfetch catches everything, yes, but never really takes a single-time-ran executable into it's boot-caching. it only takes stuff you run more than once, and just at the boot time or short after.