The
Prefetcher is a component of
Microsoft Windows which was introduced in
Windows XP. It is a component of the
Memory Manager that can speed up the Windows
boot process and shorten the amount of time it takes to start up programs. It accomplishes this by caching files that are needed by an application to RAM as the application is launched, thus consolidating disk reads and reducing disk seeks. This feature is covered by US patent 6,633,968.