TheSubtleKnife

This little tweak helps load programs faster.

1. Right click on the program shortcut icon that you want to speed up.
2. Click "Properties".
3. Then select the "Shortcut" tab.
4. Where it says "Target: "C:\Program Files\program.exe" ,after the .exe, type: "/prefetch:1". So now it says "C:\Program Files\program.exe" /prefetch:1
5. Click OK!

Viola! Enjoy your faster opening programs!

jigglylizard

What does this do to make it run faster? Everything has pros and cons, and I'd like to know both for this tweak.

__________________
Member of the OCN Diablo III Club

Mad_Handlez89

As Jiggly said - How does this work? Add it to your FAQ and you will have more interest as people like us wont have to ask annoying questions :p

Mr_Torch

This is a not good FAQ read this;


/Prefetch:1 Switch Neutral

Myth - "Adding the /Prefetch:1 Switch to the startup path of a program's

shortcut will decrease the program's startup time."

Reality - All it does is change your hash number - the OS is doing

exactly the same thing it did before, and just saving the prefetch pages

to a different file. It does not improve performance in any way. Ryan

Myers of Microsoft's Windows Client Performance Team writes: "The

/prefetch:# flag is looked at by the OS when we create the process -

however, it has one (and only one) purpose. We add the passed number to

the hash. Why? WMP is a multipurpose application and may do many

different things. The DLLs and code that it touches will be very

different when playing a WMV than when playing a DVD, or when ripping a

CD, or when listening to a Shoutcast stream, or any of the other things

that WMP can do. If we only had one hash for WMP, then the prefetch would

only be correct for one such use having incorrect prefetch data would not

be a fatal error - it'd just load pages into memory that'd never get

used, and then get swapped back out to disk as soon as possible. Still,

it's counterproductive. By specifying a /prefetch:# flag with a different

number for each "mode" that WMP can do, each mode gets its own separate

hash file, and thus we properly prefetch. (This behavior isn't specific

to WMP - it does the same for any app.) This flag is looked at when we

create the first thread in the process, but it is not removed by

CreateProcess from the command line, so any app that chokes on

unrecognized command line parameters will not work with it. This is why

so many people notice that Kazaa and other apps crash or otherwise refuse

to start when it's added. Of course, WMP knows that it may be there, and

just silently ignores its existence. I suspect that the "add /prefetch:1

to make rocket go now" urban legend will never die, though."


Source: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html