This technique is unique to Windows XP. As some of you may know, it is necessary to periodically do a little PC Clean Up, scrub the registry and TEMP files. And the prefetch in Windows XP is a useful technique, but the prefetch directory can fill up with junk files and obsolete links over time which in turn reduces computer performance.
Go to C:/windows/prefetch and clean up all those junk and obsolete files.
Reboot your computer.
You should do this once a month for optimized performance.
yes, it is quite effictive.
And also you can use this free registry defrag to compact your registry and speed up your computer