The Prefetcher is a Windows component which records the files loaded when an application starts, so that the system can optimise its launch time in future.

WinPrefetchView is a compact portable tool which displays these records, helping you to see the applications being launched on your PC, and which files are being loaded when they start.

The program has a two pane interface. At the top is a list of the individual prefetch files, including their name, creation time, modified time, size, process name, process path, last run time, and more.

Conveniently, the table can be sorted by any column. Click the "Last Run Time" column header, say, and you'll see the programs that have been run most recently on your system, handy if it's used by others and you want to see what they've been doing.

Click any individual prefetch file and the lower pane shows you the files loaded when that application starts (or for the first 10 seconds of its launch time, anyway).

This report is much more technical, usually just a list of DLLs, fonts, INI files and whatever else a program might use at startup. Still, if you're trying to troubleshoot some technical issue - a slow launch time, perhaps - it just might provide the clue you need.

Version 1.35 brings:

- The 'Last Run Time' column now shows up to 8 run date/time values, for Prefetch files of Windows 8 or later.