Microsoft Vista Disk Thrash Superfetch ?
- 30th Jul 2007
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- Rant
Ok, I’m lucky enough to have got a new pc in the last week and being the techie geek I am I couldn’t resist trying out Microsoft Vista.
The version was Microsoft Vista Ultimate and to be honest the install was really a breeze with surprisingly even the wireless card being picked up, the pc information accurately reported.
I have heard so much bad press about Vista I was a little uneasy to say the least, but I have to say the overall experience of install wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I had anticipated.
All was going really well, I was like the cat that got the thick cream and a Cheshire grin illuminated the Horton household.
Until….
Well more disk thrashing activity than an enthusiastic dominatrix on speed. My PC drive was going into overdrive. No worries I thought, this must be down to something really simple, such as scheduled defragmentation or that the pc is indexing the drive and things will surely subside.
I left the pc on overnight….
Next morning…
My wife Catherine then needed to look at the bus timetable for a summer job she started this week, no problem I thought just open the document in Adobe and all will be well.
Well, shortly after my hair had turned grey and wrinkles had formed over my ready warn typing finger the document opened.
After a bit of online research the things to check are:
Scheduled defrag – what’s it doing?
Indexing- Turn it off – I did.
Superfetch turn off, which involves a bit of a registry tweak.
There is a way to disable superfetch in vista by setting the following registry key to a value of “0″:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnableSuperfetch
A value of 1 prefetches boot processes, 2 prefetches applications and 3 is for both.
This service is not beneficial to those having a memory less than 2Gb, what! Is my 1GB not enough?
For now this seems to have remedied the disk thrash but anyone else who has experienced this, I’d like to hear your work-rounds.
Dan Horton
24 Comments | Leave a comment »
Yeah, go back to XP! :D
Yeah, same problem here. The thrashing went on for days. Solution = format HDD, install Ubuntu.
Ya get a mac! Don’t have to worry about any of that stuff!
I have been using Vista for several months and mostly hate it. There are odd bugs, many things that you can’t get to work on it, wierd permissions problems that stop some programs working, and a whole bunch of other things that bring grief on a daily basis.
Speed is not an issue with a Dual Core 1.6 GHz machine and 2GB of RAM. Do beware that shared graphics and/or less than 1GB of RAM makes it almost unusable.
Yes Keemo looking that way… Ubuntu I like and I have an old iMac which has never let me down. Agreed g1smd the permissions are odd, especially when logged in as admin…do you really want to go ahead etc?? Just do it will you lol
Im thinking perhaps go for 2Gb ram.
I finally upgraded my work pc and planned to get a monster machine that would last me for the next several years.
I picked up a Dell XPS, 2.4ghz Intel Core 2, with 4GB of ram (the most you can put in by the way). I also upgraded to the newest office suite, 2007. I’ve had it for a few months now and I feel like a beginner all over again. I was tech support for IBM & Sprint so I’ve seen it all, but this thing makes me throw every cuss word in the book during the day.
I’d suggest having at least 2gb of ram. It’s what they suggest. If you can, go to 4gb. I peak out with my memory constantly as I have a sidebar gadget that shows the performance of both processors and ram. Outlook 2007 is a monster taking, at times, 250mg of memory. Of course, for the past week, i’ve been unable to even open Outlook unless in safe mode. Microsoft has no idea what to do so I work in Safe Mode every day.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. The Ultimate, which I have too, has the cool wallpaper which you can make come to life with video loops and animated images. “Dreamscape” I think it’s called. There is also a poker addon for ultimate users which has taken some of my time.
Overall, when you look at the stats of my computer, regardless of everything I have on it, maxed on memory, they tell me my overall user experience is only a 4.7!
I feel your pain DaveN!
Ron, goodness your system is a mighty one!
Yes iv’e taken your advice and am upgrading to 2GB this evening. Why is it with Microsoft we have to throw more hardware at each OS release they do?
Makes me think of the recent offers in the UK on free laptop with broadband deals, are buyers really getting value for money?
The addition of another 1GB of Ram has calmed the beast.
well whatever you do if you are running a nvidia raid configuration do not go for the recent optional update to the raid controller. toasted both drives in my mirrored array and now i cannot even install windows, i get some suck ass error.
so if i can work how to get ubuntu to load after its installed then i am well and truly a convert. i love that live cd it rocks. im not to keen on nvidia or microsoft whoever handled by hard drive upgrade is a c**k. never think a mirrored array is a great backup solution… :(
See also here: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance&tid=ca8a8123-ba54-4b88-9e58-d37ca38452cf&cat=&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1
Note that even 4Gs of RAM ain’t really helping. Nor is having a Raptor for a system drive.
Hi all. I got new notebook with Vista (Turion x2 2Gz/2GB RAM) from my friend to reintall it to XP. First I tried to optimise Vista, and I did it! I can say - Vista is faster then XP, BUT YOU HAVE TO CONFIGURE IT!
1) add FAST flash memory (1-2GB) and use it for ReadyBoost;
2) turn off Prefetch and may be even SuperFetch;
3) remove all unnecessary security options;
4) stop unwanted services;
5) uninstall all Norton anti-virus system (you may use Kaspersky instead);
6) defragment hard disk (better results with Diskeeper, but windows defrag.exe is ok).
All works very vell, stable and fast.
Next week I will receive notebook with only 1GB RAM and Sempron CPU. I hope its enough for Vista.
Aldis, thanks I’d second that configuration,I pretty much used the same approach and its been running fine ever since. Regards 1 GB Ram on Sempron you should be fine so long as you follow your steps 2,4 ;)
Aldis, thanks. Can you expand a bit on these items: 3) remove all unnecessary security options; 4) stop unwanted services.
DaveN: Re your title of “Can’t beat a good rank”. Im intrigued by “rank” which usually means ‘relative position’ of something e.g. hierarchy, taxis, etc, & can also (rarely) be used in computer programming (J programming language rank). OR is it a mispelled “RANT”, which is related to debates, speeches, writings, opinions, satirists, complaints, etc. Thank you for reading my rant.
Why fiddle in the registry? Start>run>services.msc>superfetch. Disable it and restart your pc.
Prefetch (superfetch) is alright, the hdd thrashing at the startup is a bit of a pain for 2-3 minutes while it reads everything but in the end because it makes everything i use often faster to load, it means i spend less time waiting overall.
Secondly: “Why is it with Microsoft we have to throw more hardware at each OS release they do?” Something that they want to take advantage of new hardware? They figure, chances of people keeping the same computer from 2002 right through to 2007 is pretty low.
It costs in australia (a weaker economy then america even with your slump right now) 80 dollars for 2gb of generic ram. 100 dollars for 2gb of patriot SL ram. If you cant afford 2gb of ram, you shouldnt be upgrading to vista, save the money and buy some food or something. Luxary items come after necessaries.
Why did i buy vista? Because it handles multiple threads better, i get network transfer speeds of OVER 40mb/s on my local network, and if the network is setup correctly, i hit over 80mb/s. It will continue to be supported while it grows. Who really knew why i bought it in febuary, but in the last 8 months, its not like ive had more problems than i have had with XP. if anything, teething problems with xp pre sp1 were more. most of the problems with vista were solved in the first week of installation and google. since then its been nothing but rock solid except the one time where i changed from being a amd single core, to intel dualcore and ddr2 ram (had to reactivate it).
Im not saying everyone should be loving this system, but just that alot of what people complain about is so petty. “OMG i had to disable something”. That said, for a gamer i would suggest for max fps for the next 6 months, probably sticking with DX9/XP would be better, beyond that maybe there might be some benefits to DX10 to be worth the loss of fps in their old games, for the benefit in new ones. I game alot and it does annoy me that my 85% overclock on my cpu, and my OC 7900GTX gets less then 8000points on 3dmark 06. If i was on XP i would have either come close to 10000 or as some have, over.
You are a fool if you disable Prefetch/Superfetch. These are designed to speed up your computer, at the cost of a few minutes of disk thrashing when you first boot up. Just use sleep mode to avoid the reboots.
Ok, aside from all the fools above and a few relevant answers, here’s a belated answer.
Superfetch is similar to the feature on OS X that avoids defragging by carefully managing memory. It also loads prereq files into memory to assist in speedy application launch. Superfetch loads data it think you might need directly into ram to speed up the system, much like os x, and relinquishes it when another program initiates or requests data write to the same block.
This is going on the thinking that unused memory is wasted memory, and that is certainly a time tested fact.
You do not need to edit the registry to change ANY feature in Vista that will not risk destabilizing the machine. It can all be done through either administrative tools -> system configuration, and the following tabs.
Now, as to the thrashing, what it sounds like to me is you don’t have enough ram. 2gig should suffice, if you have that then you need to do a bit of optimizing.
My suggestions:
1) kill aero
2) kill indexing
3) LEAVE SUPERFETCH ALONG, it will save you time in the future
4) Administrative tools -> system config; uncheck any applications you have in the startup tab that aren’t essential (aim, itunes, wmp media center sharing, acrobat’s 4 startup apps/services, napster, java runtime, etc)
5) go into services tab in the same and uncheck anything that is not labeled a microsoft service. Generally if third part apps install services, they are not needed at all times, and will be initiated by the application if they are needed.
6)Turn off the following windows services:
bonjour (if you have no macs on the network)
cryptographic services
offline files
fax
machine debug manager (as you aren’t a developer)
anything that has SQL as the first 3 letters
terminal services
terminal services configuration
themes
windows defender
windows media player network sharing
I would recommend more but there’s a chance you might need the rest.
Many people will tell you to disable Secure Desktop. DON’T DO IT. With secure desktop and an occasional glance at the task manager using “show processes for all users” you will never have a virus problem. Vista does not allow processes to hide from task manager under this feature, or allow services to hide. Furthermore, a right click on a process and ’show services’ will show you exactly the service supporting the file. This makes virus identification quick and easy.
With secure desktop, you manually authorize every action on the pc that requires elevated permissions. Leaving this on will also causes viruses to crash if they and usurp administrative perms, as they often aren’t written to handle exceptions based on it.
Superfetch isn’t so super at all.. it will thrash and beat your harddrive to death always trying to guess which programs you will use next and loading them into memory. Not only is this massive amounts of unnecessary wear and tear on the harddrive… its noisy, it gernerates heat, shortens the life of your harddrive, create competition for disk access to other programs, and makes it impossible to get any indication of abnormal harddrive activity going on (such as when a virus gets hold and runs amuck). Superfetch will drive you crazy. Disable it, you will be so much happier.
And you don’t even need it… Windows will already use your memory as a cache… whatever last programs you used, stay in empty memory until you open them again, and then they will open right back up. Disable Superfetch, then launch Firefox. Close it. Launch it again. See how fast it pops right back up?
To disable it, go Start:search and type services.msc, then double-click on Superfetch, change to Disable and click on STOP.
use more ram atleast 2gb
I hate superfetch, as well I (ONLY!) have 1GB ram, 80GB HD, Intel 945gm (shoot me), and windows vista home premium.
I would go back to XP but…since I bought it with Vista im stuck.
Disabling Superfetch was the best Idea. As in this laptop max is 2GB ram. And plus the HD has no cooler fan. So when superfetch gets hot thats seriously not needed.
O and PS, Ready Boost didnt make my computer even 1 bit faster as its linked to super fetch >>.
I bet in about maximum 6 months ill be on ubuntu, no questions asked.
Thanks for writing this article.
My computer is new and went BEZERK too.
Thought it was defragmenting : Oh Billy , I overestimated your grand monopolist company again.
Should have known better to trust them.
Prob took a couple months off the life of the HD.
Never trust Microsoft.
AND COMPUTER Salesmen warn people to add more memory. We know why now. Instead they should tell us to remove these services we don’t need.
Or install linux.
Why not disable in services?
I have 8gb with vista ultimate x64, superfetch killed my computer by taking all available ram for itself. I had to disable to even browse the Internet
Superfetch would be a neat feature, IF the microsoft programmers added one simple slider that controls how much RAM superfetch is allowed to use for caching. At the moment the only available value is ‘ALL’, meaning that if there are a few megs of unused memory SF will fill it.
This causes major performance degradation when allocating/deallocating memory. Consider the following scenario: You boot up the system, SF will make your hdd rattle for a few minutes as it fils up all those gigabytes of memory. Then you launch a memory-intensive app (paq data compression, Virtual Machine with XP on it, 3d calculations, …) and SF has to give up 600 megs of its cache. Then you are done and the 600 megs becomes available again. And SF immediately starts to fill it up again with data it had to discard previously.
The consequence? Everything you run, anything you do, will produce wasteful HDD activity. And since your HDD has to do all those random seeks, any legitimate disk I/O that may be going on will experience heavy performance degradation as well.