Cleaning out the prefetch folder

I have been trying to clear out old files from my computer to help improve performance.

I have read that the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder can become full and that this can slow down a PC. Can you explain what Prefetch is and whether it’s safe to delete files in the Prefetch folder?

When you start up your PC, certain files load every time, and the same thing happens when you start an application. Windows XP keeps track of those files so it can place them close together on your hard drive so they load faster. In fact, it actually loads them into memory before the program asks for them. That’s the Prefetch bit, and the files in the Prefetch folder are where Windows XP keeps the lists of related files.

If you’re short on space you can delete them, but the applications you run won’t start up as quickly. If there are programs you’ve uninstalled, you can safely delete the Prefetch files for them without slowing anything down, but Windows clears the files out every 30 days anyway.