What are Prefetch and Superfetch features in Windows 11/10 OS?
Prefetch and Superfetch are a part of the Windows 10 operating system’s memory management function. They are designed to make the computer work faster. Prefetch is used to preload data that might be needed in the future so that it is ready when needed. Superfetch is used to predict what applications you will use and preload them before you run them.
What is the Difference Between Prefetch and SuperFetch?
Prefetch
Prefetch is a technology that caches data in advance so that it can be accessed quickly when needed.
Superfetch
Superfetch is an improved version of prefetch that learns from your behavior and pre-loads the most memory-intensive applications and data to your system’s memory, which results in faster startup times.
Why We Recommend Disabling Superfetch on Windows 11 or 10 or 8 or 7 ?
If your computer’s main storage is a hard disk then this function will give helps you to get the best performance possible by caching/prefetching. Disabling these features will adversely affect the performance of the system.
But if you have a lot of RAM and/or SSD, Superfetch may not be as useful as it used to be. This is because your computer will actually get a better performance boost without this component running.
How To Disable SuperFetch in Windows 11/10?
The issue with superfetch is that they are not always running in the background, which means that the computer will not be as fast as it could be. Here are some steps to fix this problem.
- Open up Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc or Ctrl+Alt+Del on your keyboard.
- Find the Services tab on the left side of your screen and click on it.
- Scroll down and find SysMain service and right-click on it.
- Click Properties and then click Startup type and select Disabled.
- Restart your computer to see if this fix worked.
How To Disable Prefetch in Windows 11 & Windows 10?
Follow these steps to disable the “Prefetcher” function in Windows 11 & 10. You may also read how to cleanup prefetch cache files/folders here.
- Open Registry Editor(regedit.exe) as administrator [ Windows Search -> enter regedit.exe -> Select Open as administrator ]
- In Regedit.exe navigate to this path “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters“
- Double click “EnablePrefetcher” and change the Value data to “0” as showin in the below picture to disable Prefetcher memory management function.
