Superfetch and preload!

TP-Oreilly

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Hi, i have read many times on the internet that if you have an ssd, you should disable superfetch and preload because you dont need it and because it will just add to the writes of the ssd causing more writes. I have done this and my boot up time is about 3 seconds slower. The program launch times are about the same though. I have a corsair f60.

Any thoughts on this?

I kinda know how it works, the programs boot faster because something is being stored in the ram (i think), sooo, because i disabled this mine does not do this does it?, so once i boot and say i load office word, will this then be loaded into the ram so that it boots fast the second time, but then i have to start the process again after i reboot? or by disabling this does my opened programs NEVER get stored in ram, so i ALWAYS doing a cold program launch from my ssd, even though i have previously opened it?
 
Research through various means says not to screw with the operating system's routines, even with an SSD. People get ideas that they claim works better, but in actuality they're found to be lacking in most cases. Just leave those things on, and don't worry about the write cycles on modern SSDs. I have yet to meet anyone with even a first generation SSD that are having problems with it.

Superfetch is an operating system tweak that Microsoft developed to load software into Memory, so it doesn't touch the SSD.
Preload is the same as superfetch, just a different implementation/name.

Once you disable those things, it takes some time for the operating system to re-learn your system, so boot times may be slower as Windows relearns everything. Just leave the settings alone. I too have toyed with them, and haven't found any real performance benefit, from XP to 7.
 
But when you read about how to extend your ssd's life on the internet all guides say to disable that stuff and that it adds to the write life of the ssd because its always making a log. Is this true?

Also, by default windows 7 is supposed to disable superfetch and preload if it detect that you are using an ssd, this goes to show that your supposed to disable it for ssd's
 
It's a moot point, Microsoft says they disable it on the software level if they detect an SSD in the system.

Be default, Windows 7 will disable Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching on SSDs with good random read, random write and flush performance. These technologies were all designed to improve performance on traditional HDDs, where random read performance could easily be a major bottleneck. See the FAQ section for more details.

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

Thanks for asking, I learned something new about SSD tuning on Windows 7.
 
Next question, because these are disabled, the following things have happened by having these OFF:

The "starting windows" page has stayed the same (in terms of seconds to load)

Opening programs has stayed the same (in terms of seconds to load)

BUT the "welcome" screen just before the desktop shows has increased, any idea why or what i can do? (in terms of seconds to load)
 
Are you nitpicking, or have you sat there with a stop watch in each case to determine the real lag? Not trying to be snippy, but sometimes I make mountains out of molehills when I perceive something without hard data.
 
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