You will find below the steps to Enable or Disable SuperFetch in Windows 10, depending on whether the SuperFetch service is speeding up applications on your computer or causing High Disk Usage and other problems on your computer.
What is SuperFetch in Windows 10
The SuperFetch service was first introduced by Microsoft in Windows Vista and has since been part of every Windows update, including Windows 10.
SuperFetch service is designed to speed up programs running on Windows computers by caching program files that you frequently use and Pre-loading them into RAM (Random Access Memory), instead of allowing these files to be fetched from the Hard Disk.
In theory, SuperFetch should help in speeding up most frequently used Apps and programs on your computer, as it is making use of cached program files, which should be immediately available in the Fast Random Access Memory of your computer.
However, the disadvantage of SuperFetch is that it can end up consuming all the RAM on your computer, which can be a problem on older computers or newer computers with low RAM capacity.
Whether to Enable or Disable SuperFetch in Windows 10?
While SuperFetch can improve the performance of certain applications, it is known to cause its own problems on older computers and computers running RAM intensive applications.
Hence, our recommendation would be to Enable or Disable SuperFetch depending on your own user experience and the type of computer that you are using.
In case of older computers with less RAM (4 GB or Less) it makes sense to disable SuperFetch, especially if you are frequently running into High RAM, High Disk Usage or 100% Disk Usage Error on your Windows 10 computer.
Disable SuperFetch in Windows 10
In case you are experiencing High Disk Usage and other problems on your computer, you can try disabling SuperFetch and see if this helps in fixing the problem on your computer.
1. Right-click on Windows 10 Start button and then click on the Run option in the menu that appears.
2. In the Run Command window, type services.msc and click on OK.
3. On the Services Screen, scroll down and locate the SuperFetch Service.
4. Right-click on SuperFetch and then click on Properties option in the menu that appears (See image below)
4. On the SuperFetch Properties screen, click on the entry next to “Startup type” and choose Disabled from the drop-down options (See image below).
5. Click on OK to save the settings for SuperFetch Service.
Enable or Disable SuperFetch Using Registry
Follow the steps below to Enable or Disable SuperFetch in Windows 10 using the Registry Editor on your computer.
1. Click on Windows 10 Start button and then click on the Run option in the menu that appears.
Note: You can also press Windows + R Keys on the keyboard of your computer to bring up the Run Command Box.
2. In the Run Command window, type Regedit and click on OK.
3. On the Registry Editor Screen, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > MemoryManagement > and click on PrefetchParameters Folder (See image below).
4. In the right pane, double-click on EnableSuperFetch.
5. In the Edit DWORD Value, you can type “0” to disable SuperFetch and 1 or 3 to Enable SuperFetch.
0 – Disables SuperFetch Service on your computer
1 – Enables SuperFetch only when program is launched
2 – Enable boot Prefetching
3 – Enables Prefetching of practically Everything on your Windows 10 computer.
6. After typing your desired value, click on OK and close the Registry Editor screen
Note: In case the DWORD value for EnableSuperFetch does not exist on your computer, then you can create a DWORD by right-clicking on PrefetchParameters Folder and then clicking on New > DWORD Value.
Once the new DWORD Value File is created, you will be able to Enable or Disable SuperFetch by changing DWORD values.