How to Reduce Disk Usage on Windows 10

These simple steps will show you how to reduce high disk usage in Windows 10.

Steps

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    Open the Command Prompt in administrator mode. Right-click the Start
    Image titled Windowsstart.png
    button at the lower-left corner of your screen. Choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the black context menu that appears.
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    Confirm the User Account Control window, if prompted. Select Yes from the popup window.
    • You might need to enter the password to an admin account.
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    Type net stop Spooler.
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    Hit the ↵ Enter key. This will submit the command to Command Prompt.
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    Type net.exe stop superfetch.
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    Hit the ↵ Enter key. This will submit the command to Command Prompt.
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    Restart your computer. The changes you made via Command Prompt will be applied.
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    Open Task Manager. This can be done quickly by right-clicking an empty space on the taskbar and choosing Task Manager. The option is towards the bottom of the context menu.
    • Alternatively, press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Esc together.
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    Ensure you're in the advanced view. The advanced view has tabs at the top of the window. Click "More details" at the bottom-left of Task Manager if you're in the simplified view.
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    Ensure you're on the Processes tab. It's the one to the far left.
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    Observe the disk usage right above the "Disk" column. The usage should be reduced.
    • In case it's missing, right-click on "Name", "CPU", "Memory", or "Network". Choose Disk from the bottom of the context menu.
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Community Q&A

  • Question
    How does disabling superfetch reduce disk usage?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    if you mean disk operation, then know that superfetch is an AI component that tracks your usage of your machine. The computer loads what it thinks you're going to want next in memory, but doesn't execute until you call the app. If you mean disk footprint, it does nothing to affect this.

Things You'll Need

  • Device running Windows 10

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About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 36,657 times.
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Co-authors: 6
Updated: September 20, 2017
Views: 36,657
Categories: Windows 10
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