JSI Tip 4887. Disable the Windows XP Prefetcher while troubleshooting Windows and program start up issues.

Jerold Schulman

February 25, 2002

1 Min Read
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Windows XP has a Prefetcher component which shortens the amount of time it takes to start Windows and to start a program.

While troubleshooting start up problems, or program start problems, you may wish to disable the Prefetcher:

1. Use the Registry Editor to navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters.

2. Record the data value of the EnablePrefetcher Value Name, a REG-DWORD data type.

3. To disable the Prefetcher, set the EnablePrefetcher Value Name to a data value of 0.

4. Shutdown and restart your computer.

NOTE: To re-enable the Prefetcher, set the data value of EnablePrefetcher to the value you recorded in step 2, and restart your computer.

NOTE: See Configure the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Prefetcher.



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