Yep, I read that article a while ago which is why I mentioned Windows 7 should configure itself according to if you have installed Windows 7 on a solid state drive with good random read, random write and flush performance.
You also mentioned that Windows 7 doesn't disable the services, in case you add or have any mechanical HDs, but does leave it on for solid state drives - may I ask where you found that out that piece of information please?
Also check out C:\Windows\Prefetch it's usually full of files when SuperFetch and Prefetch are running - mine has a a handful of files from date of install - but nothing since, and nothing like the number of files I'd expect on a mechanical HD.
I have done a bit of testing and the conclusion I have come too is SuperFetch, Prefetch, ReadyBoost along with ReadyBoot are still enabled in Windows 7 on a solid state drive, certainly on my installation anyway. The only settings which are disabled are Disk Defragmenter.
The following is just a short description of how Superfetch works in Windows Vista from the
Inside the Windows Vista Kernel: Part 2 article by Mark Russinovich:
Mark Russinovich said:
Watching SuperFetch:
After you've used a Windows Vista system a while, you'll see a low number for the Free Physical Memory counter on Task Manager’s Performance page. That's because SuperFetch and standard Windows caching make use of all available physical memory to cache disk data. For example, when you first boot, if you immediately run Task Manager you should notice the Free Memory value decreasing as Cached Memory number rises. Or, if you run a memory-hungry program and then exit it (any of the freeware "RAM optimizers" that allocate large amounts of memory and then release the memory will work), or just copy a very large file, the Free number will rise and the Physical Memory Usage graph will drop as the system reclaims the deallocated memory. Over time, however, SuperFetch repopulates the cache with the data that was forced out of memory, so the Cached number will rise and the Free number will decline.
Watching memory(Click the image for a larger view)
I went on to simulate what Mark Russinovich said regarding running and then exiting a memory intensive program and looking at how SuperFetch reacts with the SuperFetch service on it's default settings in Windows 7 compared to disabling the service manually.
SuperFetch enabled:
This very first image is showing the SuperFetch service settings untouched after having installed Windows 7 on my solid state drive, along with Memtest running which was the program I used to quickly allocate large amounts of memory:
I then exited Memtest and waited around 30 minutes before I took the image below and as you can see, SuperFetch has repopulated the cache:
SuperFetch disabled:
I then disabled the SuperFetch service and ran Memtest again:
I exited Memtest and waited around 40 minutes till I took the image below. Since SuperFetch has been disabled, the cache value is significantly lower:
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SuerpeFetch / Prefetch enabled:
The second test I did was to see activity of the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder - The image below was taken after I had been using my system for a while with the SuperFetch service setting in it's default setting:
SuperFetch / Prefetch disabled:
This next image is with the SuperFetch service disabled after I had been using my system for a while. However, since SuperFetch has been disabled, there are obviously no files in the folder:
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ReadyBoost:
I then went to see if ReadyBoost had been disabled after a clean installation of Windows 7 - The image below is showing the ReadyBoost feature still available to removable storages devises:
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ReadyBoot enabled:
The very last test I did was with regards to ReadyBoot, which also does not seem to be disabled on a default installation of Windows 7 on a solid state drive - This first image is showing ReadyBoot enabled along with it's folder in the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder:
ReadyBoot disabled:
I then restarted the system so I could delete the "ReadyBoot" folder. Once I had logged back on, I disabled ReadyBoot and then restarted my system to see if the "ReadyBoot" folder would be created. As confirmed by the image below, it wasn't:
I've only got the SSD in the box now, and Superfetch is "manual" and defrag "disabled" was "manual" but I disabled it
When you first installed Windows 7 on your solid state drive, did the settings reflect my settings in my post
here?
