Smallvoid.com

Description:

Maintains and improves system performance over time.

Superfetch extends the Prefetcher in Windows XP by loading entire applications into memory beforehand. Where the original Prefetcher optimizes the application start by loading the application modules before it actually needs them, then Superfetch actually loads the user's favorite applications into memory before they are started by the user. This is also the reason why Vista seems like a memory hog even when doing "nothing".

• When starting the computer then Superfetch will automatically load the user's favorite applications into memory, so they are ready when the user actually starts them.
• When exiting a CPU and memory intensive application (like a game), then Superfetch will automatically load the user's favorite applications back into memory (If the favorite application are already running then they will be the first to be fetched back into memory from the pagefile).
  • The same will happen when Windows own background tasks completes.

Loading entire applications into memory can be rather memory intensive, which is why Microsoft also invented Ready Boost. Though the general consensus is that when having more than 1 GByte RAM, then Ready Boost have little affect on the performance of Superfetch.

Superfetch is controlled by the following registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet \Control \Session Manager \Memory Management]
EnableSuperFetch = 3 (Default = 3)

0 = Disable Superfetch (And the memory "hogging")
1 = Enable prefetching when programs are launched
2 = Enable boot prefetching
3 = Enable prefetching of everything

Recommended state:

• Automatic

Default State:

• Automatic

Proces name:

• svchost.exe -k LocalSystemNetworkRestricted (SysMain)

Supports:

• none

Depends:

• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)