Hi Guys,


Internet Explorer IE loads generally quicker than FireFox FF, because a portion of IE is pre-loaded by the OS via windows "prefetch." Firefox does not use windows prefetch, but it can & will speed up loading of FF.

Right Click FF shortcut > choose properties > at 'Target' at the end of the line, which looks like "...firefox.exe" add a space plus /prefetch:1

So the end of the Target line would look like:

...firefox.exe /prefetch:1

Choose apply then OK. The second time you start FF it will be much quicker. First start of FF info is going to the OS's prefetch, for future speedier starts.

Yes, good advice, Rico!
If you like a few more tweaks and a little bit more comfort, I would recommend THIS!

It's a so called "Urban Legend". Have a read here and
here.

Sorry Rico.

Quoting kahless:

Quote:
Can anybody confirm this by testing the startup time with or without this parameter? 
(My pc is a lame duck anyway...)

It's an urban legend in that it will not improve every application the same way. I read that iTunes benefits from it, as does Windows Media Player (obviously, since that's where it's been discovered). But for something like Firefox... I don't know..

You might be better off with the Firefox Pre-Loader

Oh well, I see. Maybe mostly M$ applications benefit from this parameter. Honni soit qui mal y pense 

Quoting mikl:

Quote:
It only improves the second startup?

That won't really help me much as FF is the first thing I open and the last thing I close when start my PC 

AFAIK, once started with the prefetch parameter, there will be a permanent entry in the Windows/Prefetch Folder. The file ends with*.pf and will not be automatically deleted. I personally delete all entries in this folder, because I think, that the Windows system startup goes faster after this.

Quoting mikl:

Quote:
Quoting kahless:

Quote:
Quoting mikl:

Quote:
It only improves the second startup?

That won't really help me much as FF is the first thing I open and the last thing I close when start my PC 

AFAIK, once started with the prefetch parameter, there will be a permanent entry in the Windows/Prefetch Folder. The file ends with*.pf and will not be automatically deleted. I personally delete all entries in this folder, because I think, that the Windows system startup goes faster after this.

I have 118 files in this folder!  Do you recommend deleting everything in this folder (and is it safe?)?

It is quite safe to delete the entries of the prefetch folder but of no use to the boot performance (did it once and measured startup-time via bootvis. The result was depriving +6 seconds with a fresh deleted prefetch). It's quite simple to explain why: Windows renews the entries at the next startup. so booting will take longer. The only positive thing to say about this method is that by this you delete the non-used entries in the prefetch folder.

Quoting goblinsdoitall:

Quote:

It is quite safe to delete the entries of the prefetch folder but of no use to the boot performance (did it once and measured startup-time via bootvis. The result was depriving +6 seconds with a fresh deleted prefetch). It's quite simple to explain why: Windows renews the entries at the next startup. so booting will take longer. The only positive thing to say about this method is that by this you delete the non-used entries in the prefetch folder.

From the following it looks like there is a maximum number anyway so the ones which won't be used again will gradually get deleted. And the only way entries get in here is when they get added whilst a program is starting.

Quoting RossRoy:

Quote:
It's a so called "Urban Legend". Have a read here and
here.

Sorry Rico.