What Is Superfetch and How Can You Disable It? (2023)

FAQs

What is Superfetch and should I disable it? ›

Superfetch can extend startup times by preloading programs before Windows can get itself up and running. Though Superfetch is usually helpful, sometimes it can slow down your PC. As a background service, Superfetch constantly uses some CPU and RAM resources. Try disabling Superfetch if you encounter these issues.

Method #3: Disable Superfetch with Command Prompt

Click Windows Start > search for Command Prompt. In the Command Prompt, type net.exe stop Superfetch > then press Enter. If the PC says the command above isn't valid, type net.exe stop sysmain instead > and press Enter.

#1) Click on the Windows button, search for Command Prompt, and click on “Run as administrator“, as displayed in the image below. #2) Type “sc stop “SysMain” and press Enter and then type “Scconfig “SysMain” start=disabled”, and press Enter again. Your SysMain service will be disabled.

Running lots of applications at once may cause 100% disk usage in Windows 10. Uninstalling these programs often isn't possible, because you may need them. Manually pausing the background apps is only a short-term solution, as many will restart upon bootup or run quietly in the background.

Virtual memory treats your disk as if it is RAM and uses it to swap out temporary files when it runs out of actual RAM. Errors in the pagefile. sys can cause 100% disk usage on your Windows 10 machine. The remedy to this problem is to reset your virtual memory settings.

Is it Safe to Disable Superfetch? Yes! There are no side effects if you decide to turn it off. If your system is running well, leave it on.

Disable the SuperFetch Feature

To disable it, launch the Command Prompt as Admin and type: net.exe stop superfetch and hit Enter. Give it a few minutes and see if that improves the disk usage percentage in Task Manager.

Defenders shouldn't disable PowerShell, a scripting language, because it is a useful command-line interface for Windows that can help with forensics, incident response and automating desktop tasks, according to joint advice from the US spy service the National Security Agency (NSA), the US Cybersecurity and ...

Improve Article. Save Article. Windows Vista introduced the Superfetch (SysMain) capability, which is still a part of the Windows operating system. It is a built-in service designed to speed up startup times and enhance performance by preloading frequently used apps in RAM.

How do I disable Superfetch service in Windows 11? ›

To turn off Windows' Superfetch service graphically, use the Services window on your PC. On the “Services” window, in the right pane, find the entry named “SysMain.” Then right-click this entry and choose “Stop.”

While keeping SysMain enabled should be acceptable, you might want to turn it off to determine whether your PC is running slowly. Speeds and boot times can be increased by disabling it.

SysMain is a certified Windows 10 process. It aims to analyze your computer usage and improve it by using the collected data. For example, it's able to speed up app launch times and performance. Unfortunately, having SysMain enabled may cause more harm than good.

Common signs for a failing hard drive include sluggish performance, unusual noises (clicking or loud component sounds), and an increase number of corrupted files. These are textbook symptoms for the inevitably of a failing hard drive and action should be taken quickly to save your files from being lost.

However, hard drives do need empty space for virtual memory. When your RAM becomes full, it creates a file on your hard drive for the overflow tasks. If you do not have space available for this, the computer may slow down drastically.

Why is my memory usage so high in Windows 10? One reason could be a big program or game that takes high system RAM. The other reason could be malware that caused your device high memory usage.

Does Superfetch slow down computer? ›

Superfetch doesn't cause problems just for games: Even on normal work machines Superfetch can cause high CPU usage, drain your memory (RAM), and thrash your hard disk, massively impacting your computer's speed and overall performance.

Click Start > All Programs > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory. Click Change. In the Maximum size field, set the value to the recommended value shown at the bottom of the window.

Superfetch is like drive caching. It copies all your commonly used files to RAM. This allows programs to boot faster. However, if your system doesn't have the latest hardware, Service Host Superfetch can easily cause high disk usage.

Leftover temporary files could be causing extra disk load, and deleting the files can fix 100 percent disk usage on Windows 11. To delete temp files from Windows 11: Use the keyboard shortcut Windows key + R to launch the Run dialog. In Run, type %temp% and click OK.

The issue service host local system high disk may be caused by corrupted system files. So if you come across the issue service host local system high CPU, you can try to run System File Checker to check and repair the corrupted system files.

PowerShell runs as a user-mode application, which means it can only do what the user himself can do. If you disable PowerShell, a user can still accomplish the same actions; he will just use another method to accomplish tasks, such as the command prompt, tools, scripts, and so on.

As a scripting language, PowerShell is commonly used for automating the management of systems. It is also used to build, test, and deploy solutions, often in CI/CD environments. PowerShell is built on the . NET Common Language Runtime (CLR).

How do I know if my system files are corrupted? ›

In the command prompt window, type SFC /scannow and press Enter . System file checker utility checks the integrity of Windows system files and repairs them if required. After the process is complete, reboot the computer.

The Windows Search Indexer is only required if you search your directories and files. In other words, if you don't use Windows search to locate specific files or media, you can definitely disable it. In addition, disabling the Windows Search Indexer will result in a noticeable performance improvement.

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.

On Windows XP it was known as Prefetch. Superfetch was introduced in Windows Vista, and on the latest versions of Windows 10 it's now known as Sysmain.

It analyzes your computer usage patterns and optimizes app launching and programs on your computer. If you end this tasks this process will stop and there may not be any noticeable difference for your performance.In many of the cases it lags the performance by causing high disk usage.

Windows 10 services are important components to maintain the smooth running of your computer. However, not all of them are necessary for you. You can disable unnecessary service in Windows 10 to improve your computer performance.

What Windows features should be turned off Windows 10? ›

Running lots of applications at once may cause 100% disk usage in Windows 10. Uninstalling these programs often isn't possible, because you may need them. Manually pausing the background apps is only a short-term solution, as many will restart upon bootup or run quietly in the background.

In Microsoft Windows 8 and newer, Superfetch functions differently than in previous versions of Windows and should not be disabled for the SSD.

Superfetch is like drive caching. It copies all your commonly used files to RAM. This allows programs to boot faster. However, if your system doesn't have the latest hardware, Service Host Superfetch can easily cause high disk usage.

SuperFetch predicts which applications you will run next and preloads all of the necessary data into memory. It also does that with boot files. And for every three days it sends a Defragmentation command to the OS drive which will cause issues in the SSD drives.

Disable the SuperFetch Feature

To disable it, launch the Command Prompt as Admin and type: net.exe stop superfetch and hit Enter. Give it a few minutes and see if that improves the disk usage percentage in Task Manager.

There is no reason for Windows 10's disk load to be anything close to 100%, under normal usage. A slow computer is one with a problem, and if you cannot fix it by disabling a browser plugin, stopping services, or running your antivirus software, then the problem may well be hardware related.

On Windows XP it was known as Prefetch. Superfetch was introduced in Windows Vista, and on the latest versions of Windows 10 it's now known as Sysmain.

Your disk working at or near 100 percent causes your computer to slow down and become laggy and unresponsive. As a result, your PC cannot perform its tasks properly. Thus, if you see the '100 percent disk usage' notification, you should find the culprit causing the issue and take immediate action.

What should you not use an SSD for? ›

SSDs require a capacitor and power supplies, which are vulnerable to malfunctions—especially in the case of a power surge or power failure. In fact, in the case of a power failure, SSDs have been known to corrupt existing data, too, even if the drive itself hasn't failed completely.

Trying to defrag an SSD is unnecessary because SSDs are currently much smarter than their HDD counterparts. They have onboard wear-leveling and error correction built right into the controller and the NAND. That being said, running CHKDSK is typically not a necessary operation for SSDs.

To check whether that's the case, right-click on your desktop taskbar and select Task-Manager. Scroll down until you see the entry “Service Host: SysMain.” This is Superfetch.

Windows 10 – Start – Quick Access Menu – Open Computer ManagementOn the left side open “Services and Applications” and there “Services”. Select “SysMain” in the services list and click on “Stop the service”. This will deactivate Superfetch. Afterwards you can evaluate if your system works any better.