Enable or disable the Windows 10, 8, or 7 Superfetch (otherwise known as Prefetch) feature. Superfetch caches data so that it can be immediately available to your application. Sometimes this can affect the performance of certain applications. It tends to not work well with gaming, but can improve performance with business apps.
To modify whether Superfetch is enabled or disabled, you can perform the following steps.
Disable from Services
- Hold the Windows Key, while pressing “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
- Type “services.msc“, then press “Enter“.
- The Services window displays. Find “Superfetch” in the list.
- Right-click “Superfetch“, then select “Properties“.
- Select the “Stop” button if you wish to stop the service. In the “Startup type” dropdown menu, choose “Disabled“.
Enable or Disable from Registry
- Hold the Windows Key, while pressing “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
- Type “Regedit“, then press “Enter“.
- The Registry Editor window appears. Navigate to the following location in the Registry.
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SYSTEM
- CurrentControlSet
- Control
- Session Manager
- MemoryManagement
- PrefetchParameters
- On the right side, double-click on “EnableSuperfetch“. If this value doesn’t exist, right-click the “PrefetchParameters” folder, then choose “New” > “DWORD Value“.
- Give “EnableSuperfetch” one of the following values:
- 0 – to disable Superfetch
- 1 – to enable prefetching when program is launched
- 2 – to enable boot prefetching
- 3 – to enable prefectching of everything
- Select “OK“.
- Close the Registry Editor.
Note: If you disable Superfetch and would like to enable it for certain applications, you can use special switch in the program shortcut: /prefetch:1
FAQ
Where is the prefetch data stored?
By default, prefetch data is stored at “C:\Windows\Prefetch“.
Sage says
Yes this was a huge help on my Dell Inspiron Win10 machine. I am not a gamer by any stretch but my laptop was running slow, locking up, etc. I’ve never seen task manager take several minutes to load. When I could finally get it to load, it showed 100% disk capacity and “superfectch” was the only process with a high usage.
Thanks
adam says
my pc runs good but when i open a game and plays for a while (it happends the most in open world games) after i play when i close the game my pc is being slow hope it will fix it
deemon says
the “Superfetch” service has been renamed to “Sysmain” now.
Turbotortoise Stickle says
Yes, this article did help.. Why would anyone want a bunch of apps not being used hogging up resources (CPU, RAM, and sometimes even WAN bandwidth) do to an assumption? Keeps re-activating after updates.
Cyan says
Your advice seems to have healed my limping junkpile of a machine. I was running at 95%-100% disk usage randomly for no reason out of the vast blue sky of terrible fate and luck. Thanks to you I can use this clunker in peace for the time being. I hope to whatever vengeful computer gods that dictate our messed up lives that this peace isn’t short lived and I praise your name and your post.
N.Martin says
Microsoft’s first OS was MSDOS, the MicroSoft Disk Operating System. Since then they have been obessed with disk related performance and Superfetch is the latest evidence of that obession. Thanks for the solution to switch this irritant off. Here an idea Microsoft, make the OS read only, prefetch every app as part of it’s install and create a profiling suite with a prefetching optimization tool for users to initiate when they choose.
Sean says
Yesterday after Windows 10 automatically updated, my computer couldn’t boot. It forced me to reset. After that, Windows 10 did NOT allow me to choose default programs! And it ran superfetch and a lot of other programs I didn’t want! I’d say Microsoft team has become very rude to users!
FWTXGeek says
Superfetch is a serious PITA! What sucks is that are some Windows updates, it sometimes will be reset to run automatically, and then my poor laptop is at 100% disk usage which makes it pretty much a paperweight. Then I have to stop the service, disable it again, do a disk check, and reboot. ARG! I hate it with a passion!
Ed Reichenbach says
Superfecth is hell. Nobody asks it to run, it runs on its own, and then it takes up so much disk capacity as to entirely block usage of the computer. I hate and I hate Windows for inventing it and imposing it onto us users. Windowns is a necessary evil… for want of any better solution.
George Gough says
Thank you my hero,
If you ever need any organs I’m willing to donate any of mine after this fix. I have tried dozens of other help sites but nothing worked, until now.
Jeremy says
Thank you! It definitely freed up disk space, now to work on memory… what is cortana doing that is taking up so much memory? She is just a search bar… ? Safe to ditch her too?