What is the purpose of %windir%\prefetch directory ??? I'm just curious about it.

I'm pretty sure it helps programs load up faster. I don't know how but my guess is that it stores some info or part of the .exe files that are loaded.

Prefetch is a tool that allows windows to, just like the name suggests, pre-load a program into memory.

This way, when you go to run the program, it will load up faster than if there had been no prefetch at all.

As you open programs and use them, Windows keeps track of this and puts a type of link to the program in the prefetch directory. When you next boot up, Windows will take an extra few seconds to pre-load those programs into memory.

If you have the task scheduler service, stopped this function will not work. Also, you can control the behaviour of the prefetch folder at the following registry entry

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

0 = disabled

1 = User appications only

2 = Boot applications only

3 = everything

The default is 3. If you don't want windows to load any of your common programs (browser, e-mail client, etc etc) then set it to 2.

It's also a good idea to delete everything from this folder every now and then. After about 3 boots you'll have all the boot loaded items back in prefetch, and after the first run of your favortie programs, they'll be back in the folder as well.

Hope this helps!