Windows 7 Pagefile/Superfetch/ReadyBoot discussion

[yxz 95]

What is this?

disable superfetch

sc.exe config SysMain start= disabled

disable readyboot

reg.exe delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger\ReadyBoot /f

ReadyBoot

After every boot, the ReadyBoost service (the same service that implements the ReadyBoost feature just described) uses idle CPU time to calculate a boot-time caching plan for the next boot. It analyzes file trace information from the five previous boots and identifies which files were accessed and where they are located on disk.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazin...istakernel.aspx

[Zmijutin 5]

Did you turn it off? How was your boot time? Increased or decreased?

[Night Prowler 132]

disable superfetch

sc.exe config SysMain start= disabled

disable readyboot

reg.exe delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger\ReadyBoot /f

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazin...istakernel.aspx

You will NEVER even notice the differance if either of the two hacks above are on or off!

[MagicAndre1981 5]

@TomoSnake

NEVER do this!

Disabling Superfetch is bad and slows down your PC is you have a traditional HDD.

And disabling ReadyBoot slows down the boot process.

[Zmijutin 5]

Thanks, I did a little research in mean time. It seems that no third party or any other program whatsoever are needed for maintaining windows 7. So I'll stick to the Disk Cleanup and Defragmenter :)

[BoDEAN 68]

disable superfetch

sc.exe config SysMain start= disabled

disable readyboot

reg.exe delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger\ReadyBoot /f

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazin...istakernel.aspx

Why delete superfetch. Now that's just dumb.

[Mineria 49]

Disabling Superfetch and ReadyBoot does no harm on my system.

As example my ReadyBoot service errors by loading to much, so disabled it to avoid that.

That is because I do NOT use a pagefile!

Odd? Not really when there is enough memory in your system that you can do without (there are monitor app's which can track memory usage)

And the Boot times are exact the same after, it's just a matter of regular crap removal and defragmentation.

Superfetch is designed to fetch every app after which you use the most.

Do you really think that you need that together with pretty large games?

So disabling it will speed things up for some, it all depends on how many app's your using and which you use the most.

My app's load faster without SF, and I don't have the HD working as much on boot, so...

Saying that it is general bad to disable it is pure bull****.

Try it, if it works for you its good, if not its bad, but stop generalizing it.

[StarLion 4]

Lets just set some ground rules here:

1. NEVER disable the pagefile:

Disabling the pagefile can cause all sorts of problems and strange issues. Some applications will simply refuse to start without a pagefile.

IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MUCH RAM YOU HAVE, do not disable it. If you really must, change it to a small fixed size of around 500MB.

2. NEVER disable SuperFetch:

This is an idle-time service that uses otherwise free resources. Turning this off will only hurt performance (even if you have an SSD).

3. NEVER disable Readyboost:

This is another idle time service; turning this off will hurt boot times (even if you don't have a flash drive dedicated to ReadyBoost).

[x-byte 94]

?

Disabling Superfetch and ReadyBoot does no harm on my system.

As example my ReadyBoot service errors by loading to much, so disabled it to avoid that.

Yes it does. It harms the performance. Superfetch isn't something that uses resources, it is made to handle resources better.

That is because I doNOT> use a pagefile!

Odd? Not really when there is enough memory in your system that you can do without (there are monitor app's which can track memory usage)

And the Boot times are exact the same after, it's just a matter of regular crap removal and defragmentation.

Again, that is not true. You do need the pagefile no matter the amount of memory you have. Turning it off can in fact make your system less stable.

Superfetch is designed to fetch every app after which you use the most.

Do you really think that you need that together with pretty large games?

So disabling it will speed things up for some, it all depends on how many app's your using and which you use the most.

My app's load faster without SF, and I don't have the HD working as much on boot, so...

Saying that it is general bad to disable it is pure bull****.

Stop spreading lies. Your system will alway be more responsive with Superfetch on. There is absolutely no performance penalty to have it enabled. And no your apps doesn't start faster at all. They will in fact startup faster with Superfetch enabled. RAM is faster then your HDD no matter what.

Try it, if it works for you its good, if not its bad, but stop generalizing it.

I think you should stop making up things.

Lets just set some ground rules here:

1. NEVER disable the pagefile:>

Disabling the pagefile can cause all sorts of problems and strange issues. Some applications will simply refuse to start without a pagefile.

IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MUCH RAM YOU HAVE, do not disable it. If you really must, change it to a small fixed size of around 500MB.

2. NEVER disable SuperFetch:>

This is an idle-time service that uses otherwise free resources. Turning this off will only hurt performance (even if you have an SSD).

3. NEVER disable Readyboost:>

This is another idle time service; turning this off will hurt boot times (even if you don't have a flash drive dedicated to ReadyBoost).

Correct. Windows today maintain itself very well. Some of the tweaks that roam the Internet is old stuff from the Windows 98 era. They do not have an impact on modern OS's. But it can actually harm the system. Tweaking software are useless today.

[Mineria 49]

Yes it does. It harms the performance. Superfetch isn't something that uses resources, it is made to handle resources better.

SuperFetch monitors which applications you use the most and preloads these into your system memory so they'll be ready when you need them.

So it will preload whatever program you use the most.

Cool if you play some huge game every day and then need to do something in another larger application.

Try to listen to your HD when starting up. ;)

Check program sizes versus physical ram etc.

If you use large programs this can affect your boot times to.

Again, that is not true. You do need the pagefile no matter the amount of memory you have. Turning it off can in fact make your system less stable.

No you do not.

Head over to Toms Hardware where they did a throughout test with the pagefile, and check out the results yourself.

As a fact, I monitor a maximum usage of 6GB memory on my system, which is why I don't use neither need a pagefile swapping on disk.

Shouldn't need to explain access speed differences between different type of storage and why you don't need more then you use at max loads.

Of course if you run heavy applications that uses more memory than what you physical got to work with you need a pagefile.

Stop spreading lies. Your system will alway be more responsive with Superfetch on. There is absolutely no performance penalty to have it enabled. And no your apps doesn't start faster at all. They will in fact startup faster with Superfetch enabled. RAM is faster then your HDD no matter what.

See, you say it yourself: RAM is faster then your HDD no matter what, think about that for a while.

And than you very much for that other sentence.

[Mineria 49]

Lets just set some ground rules here:

1. NEVER disable the pagefile:

Disabling the pagefile can cause all sorts of problems and strange issues. Some applications will simply refuse to start without a pagefile.

IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MUCH RAM YOU HAVE, do not disable it. If you really must, change it to a small fixed size of around 500MB.

2. NEVER disable SuperFetch:

This is an idle-time service that uses otherwise free resources. Turning this off will only hurt performance (even if you have an SSD).

3. NEVER disable Readyboost:

This is another idle time service; turning this off will hurt boot times (even if you don't have a flash drive dedicated to ReadyBoost).

So, I got all those 3 disabled which means my PC with 8GB RAM won't have under 30 seconds boot-time, my application will constantly crash and overall performance is worse?

Lets see...

I play games like Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, WoW, Guild Wars, Risen, Hellgate London and some random fps now and then.

None of these games got performance issues.

I run applications like MS Visual Studio Pro, MS Office 2007, MS SQL Server 2008, Eclipse, Gimp, Cakewalk Sonar and other random smaller ones, none of those got performance issues.

And I don't have crashes with those above either.

Actually I know that those games and programs load and perform a lot better than on the same system with a standard installation of Windows 7.

So please be my guest to tell me what that makes you think this is not true.

[StarLion 4]

You can't be serious. Reported as a troll.

Read my lips: Disabling those features will only hurt performance, not help it.

Edited November 9, 2009 by StarLion

[Chemaz 31]

Why would not have them enabled? i mean seriously?

Superfetch yeah puts ur most used apps in the ram, but when the ram is needed it overwrites that data with what ever ur doing, so u never take a performance hit, you will only ever see performance gains!, and if u have 6gb+ then itll probs contain every "everyday" program u use. Its putting all ur ram to good use, you dont have a few gig not doing anything

As for pagefile, why not leave it enabled? 7 is smart enough to know when to use and not use the pagefile, again disabling it, ur not gona get any performance gains!

I would understand disabling them all if u actually got performance gains out of it and actual noticeable ones, not a few millisec differences if there are any. If it aint broke dont fix!

[Guest xiphi]

Quite dumb to disable ReadyBoost and SuperFetch if you got 8GB of RAM. You'd think the more you have the better they'll work, but looks like someone disagrees. :) I like my speedy application start up's and reliable memory management so I leave the services as they are.

[_Xx_HeX_xX_ 0]

Ok, so after reading all of this, It's a riot! First you want performance, lets start with simple. Just disable system restore. That is the only "tweak" that will do anything at all. As for pure speed, get a clue, over 6 gigs of ram is great except that then you run win7 x64 which is no issue, except since your running a majority of 32 bit apps, you don't see the performance. Keep in mind, if you run 32 bit apps in a 64bit OS, it still has to use 64 bit memory address's therefor actually "slowing" you down. Lets think here, there are two things you can do to really see a big performance increase 1. if you run mostly 32bit programs "most of you do" then run win7 x86 I promise even with the less ram itll be faster 2. Run win7 x64 but only use native 64bit apps with it (this is possible if you look around) . Once again I will restate, realistically you lose preformance with 32 bit apps on a 64bit OS. So try one of those, and thank me later. Other than that, there is NO point in modding Win 7, its stable, fast and reliable.

[Eric 1,605]

Ok, so after reading all of this, It's a riot! First you want performance, lets start with simple. Just disable system restore. That is the only "tweak" that will do anything at all. As for pure speed, get a clue, over 6 gigs of ram is great except that then you run win7 x64 which is no issue, except since your running a majority of 32 bit apps, you don't see the performance. Keep in mind, if you run 32 bit apps in a 64bit OS, it still has to use 64 bit memory address's therefor actually "slowing" you down. Lets think here, there are two things you can do to really see a big performance increase 1. if you run mostly 32bit programs "most of you do" then run win7 x86 I promise even with the less ram itll be faster 2. Run win7 x64 but only use native 64bit apps with it (this is possible if you look around) . Once again I will restate, realistically you lose preformance with 32 bit apps on a 64bit OS. So try one of those, and thank me later. Other than that, there is NO point in modding Win 7, its stable, fast and reliable.

Disabling System Restore won't change performance. It's only run when installing applications or occasionally when the computer is idle. And 32-bit programs just use half the available address space, there's no noticeable performance hit.

[x-byte 94]

SuperFetch monitors which applications you use the most and preloads these into your system memory so they'll be ready when you need them.

So it will preload whatever program you use the most.

Cool if you play some huge game every day and then need to do something in another larger application.

Try to listen to your HD when starting up. ;)

Check program sizes versus physical ram etc.

If you use large programs this can affect your boot times to.

It doesn't load your whole game, just the exe- and dll-files. It won't affect your boot times at all. Superfetch will wait a while before loading files into RAM. And when it does you wont notice because it uses low priority IO to do so (just a few KB at the time).

Please stop making a fool of yourself.

Head over to Toms Hardware where they did a throughout test with the pagefile, and check out the results yourself.

As a fact, I monitor a maximum usage of 6GB memory on my system, which is why I don't use neither need a pagefile swapping on disk.

Shouldn't need to explain access speed differences between different type of storage and why you don't need more then you use at max loads.

Of course if you run heavy applications that uses more memory than what you physical got to work with you need a pagefile.

It's not just about performance and tests. The pagefile is used for more than that. Compatibility is one reason. It will not help performance. It might even hurt the performance in some cases.

See, you say it yourself: RAM is faster then your HDD no matter what, think about that for a while.

And than you very much for that other sentence.

Do you really know how a computer work?

[svnO.o 27]

?Stop spreading lies. Your system will alway be more responsive with Superfetch on.> There is absolutely no performance penalty to have it enabled. And no your apps doesn't start faster at all. They will in fact startup faster with Superfetch enabled. RAM is faster then your HDD no matter what.

I was under the impression that Superfetch is best left off in the event you have a SSD... Am I wrong? People seem to recommend turning it off if you've got one.

[_Xx_HeX_xX_ 0]

I was under the impression that Superfetch is best left off in the event you have a SSD... Am I wrong? People seem to recommend turning it off if you've got one.

Please refer to the following link regarding ssd's and win7

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/0...drives-and.aspx

If you cant find it here.

Will Superfetch be disabled on SSDs?

Yes, for most systems with SSDs.

If the system disk is an SSD, and the SSD performs adequately on random reads and doesn’t have glaring performance issues with random writes or flushes, then Superfetch, boot prefetching, application launch prefetching, ReadyBoost and ReadDrive will all be disabled.

Initially, we had configured all of these features to be off on all SSDs, but we encountered sizable performance regressions on some systems. In root causing those regressions, we found that some first generation SSDs had severe enough random write and flush problems that ultimately lead to disk reads being blocked for long periods of time. With Superfetch and other prefetching re-enabled, performance on key scenarios was markedly improved.

Just one mroe thing guys, to clear up anything about no page file, please read the following!

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?

Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.

In looking at telemetry data from thousands of traces and focusing on pagefile reads and writes, we find that

* Pagefile.sys reads outnumber pagefile.sys writes by about 40 to 1,

* Pagefile.sys read sizes are typically quite small, with 67% less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% less than 16 KB.

* Pagefile.sys writes are relatively large, with 62% greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% being exactly 1 MB in size.

In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.

[svnO.o 27]

^ Yeah I just found that link myself doing a search. I have an Intel X25-M G2 which has pretty much the best random read speed you can get on an SSD. In my case having Superfetch enabled would be pointless.

As for the pagefile thing -- I still prefer to keep mine disabled. Saves me space :)

[StarLion 4]

To sum up _Xx_HeX_xX_'s post:

"Windows will configure itself optimally depending upon the speed of your SSD. No need to tweak it after the fact."

[_Xx_HeX_xX_ 0]

^ Yeah I just found that link myself doing a search. I have an Intel X25-M G2 which has pretty much the best random read speed you can get on an SSD. In my case having Superfetch enabled would be pointless.

Yuup, nice drive, thats what im running in my lappy!

Also, I find it funny how many arguments I see here, that are clearly stated in msdn with a simple search, straight from the programmers themselves ! but I guess alotta peopel find it really ahrd to bash them, as they acctually would kno what their talking about!

To sum up _Xx_HeX_xX_'s post:

"Windows will configure itself optimally depending upon the speed of your SSD. No need to tweak it after the fact."

yea, what he said I said !

Also guys, the best truly performance enhancing thing you can really do, is get a second drive and run your page file on it! this would acctually be a lagit way of speeding up your system.

[svnO.o 27]

To sum up _Xx_HeX_xX_'s post:

"Windows will configure itself optimally depending upon the speed of your SSD. No need to tweak it after the fact."

I didn't do a clean install (imaged my old Windows 7 partition located on my hard drive to the SSD) so I did have to make some of my own adjustments awhile back.

[StarLion 4]

It's recommended that you avoid imaging from a hard disk to an SSD at all costs.

Apart from Windows not reconfiguring itself, you also have partition alignment issues when you image from a mechanical drive.

[_Xx_HeX_xX_ 0]

I didn't do a clean install (imaged my old Windows 7 partition located on my hard drive to the SSD) so I did have to make some of my own adjustments awhile back.

You should really run a clean install, I know when using a SSD Win7 will do a few other optimizations to enhance your drive performance.

again starlion +1