Windows and Linux howtos

If you think you can give up on some of the “features” that come with the NTFS file system, like remembering when each file was accessed on the computer, you might gain a few percentages in file read/write operations. Windows versions XP and above come with a small command-line utility called “FSUTIL”, which is a filesystem utility that allows you to disable the last access time of files on an NTFS partition.

To do that, open a command window [ start-run-cmd-enter or winbutton+r, type cmd and press enter], and type the following command into the command line and press enter:

FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1

This will only work during the current session of course, and if and when you restart your computer, the filesystem behavior will revert to “normal” or default, that is, to remember again each file’s last access time. To make the change permanent, or to be applied at every boot, create a new file in notepad, but instead of the .txt extension, save it with a “.cmd” extension, so it would be saved like “fstweak.cmd” or something like that, and put th
You can also download the .cmd file that contains the code from above by clicking HERE. Simply download the file into your startup directory and reboot your system, the tweak will be applied on every login.e file in the windows startup directory. The startup directory is usually easily editable by clicking on your start menu, selecting programs, RIGHT-clicking on startup and selecting “Open folder” or “open all users”. Once the folder is open, simply drag and drop the .cmd file you created, into the startup folder. Close the folders, and there you have it. next time your system logs you in , the tweak will also be applied to the filesystem’s behavior, and a little increase in any file-related operations, such as reading, writing, copying, moving, should be given to you.

While on XP, you can implement the tweak as a regular user, on vista and windows seven, you might need to open the startup folder with administrative privilages, that is, you have to press shift before right-clicking on “startup” and select “open as “… and select administrator or the user with admin privileges on the system.