Why you should never delete Prefetch files in your Windows PC?

Why you should never delete Prefetch files in your Windows PC?

I get really shocked being an IT expert that people are teaching others to delete prefetch files to speed up their PC. I have seen many videos where people saying that go to Run type %temp%, temp and prefetch one by one and delete all the files inside those folders, this is how they can speed up their Windows PC. But is this information correct? 

The correct answer is 'NO'. Deleting files inside %temp% and temp folders can free up space of your system but that does not speed up Windows PC. However, deleting files inside the 'Prefetch' folder neither frees up space of your system nor speeds up your PC. It actually slows down PC performance temporarily. 

The location of 'Prefetch' folder is: C:\Windows\Prefetch 
You can access this folder by going to Run Box, then type prefetch and hit enter.

Let me explain everything: 


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What is Prefetch files in Windows?
The files inside the prefetch folder are types of files those are created by your windows operating system whenever an executable file is run on that system. This type of file contains information about other files loaded by an executable when that executable is run. 

Every prefetch file is related to an executable. It contains information about the files loaded by an executable. 
So, each prefetch file is used to optimize execution of that program. 


The moment you delete all files inside the 'Prefetch' folder, some of the disk space will definitely be freed up but just for a while. As soon as you start using different programs, windows will start creating different prefetch files. So, on each program execution one prefetch file will be created. So deleting prefetch files is meaningless. 

Now let me explain why deleting prefetch files temporarily slows down your Windows. When you are deleting files inside prefetch folder, you are deleting all the information that Windows system uses to optimize programs execution. So next time when a program executes, windows will have to follow up everything to recreate the prefetch file for a particular program and it takes some time. Overall it is delaying the process. 

I hope you understand it!

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