Does Windows 8.1 know it's running on an SSD?

07
2014-07
  • Sphinxxx

    Yesterday I installed Windows 8.1 (clean install - no migration) on a new SSD (Samsung 840 EVO). I then ran winsat formal to let Windows optimize itself, as suggested here: Windows 8.1 SSD Settings, but I don't see the expected results in the registry:

    • From the article: ".. once Windows 8.1 discovers it is installed on a SSD it removes the EnableSuperfetch value entirely". My EnableSuperfetch value is still there under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
    • From the article: "ReadyBoot is also disabled by running winsat formal.". Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger\ReadyBoot, my Start value is still 1.

    So now I have two questions:

    1. Didn't Windows detect that it runs on an SSD?
    2. Does it matter for the lifetime/reliability of the SSD?
    • Answers
  • Sphinxxx

    Oh man.. All it took was two reboots with some idle time in-between, and all settings were updated correctly. The need for reboots was even clearly described in the linked article.


    • Related Question

    process - Windows 8.1 suspends all running processes
  • Јοеу

    This has happened to me twice now. Windows 8.1 decides to suspend all my processes all of a sudden. Now I know that it does that to Metro apps that are in background. But my regular desktop apps (including Explorer) might be exempted from that, I guess (especially when I'm currently using them).

    I could get it to run again more or less by starting Task Manager via Ctrl+Alt+Del, then killing Explorer and starting Process Explorer from there which enabled me to resume all processes again. But I still wonder how this happens in the first place. Specifically I'd like to ask whether that's in any way expected behaviour and what I could do to prevent it from occurring in the future.

    My system is virus-free, just in case anyone asks. Yesterday I just tried to run msbuild; after hitting ↲ above issue happened. A while ago I don't remember what I tried to do when it manifested, but I didn't think far enough to solve the problem with procexp and ended up restarting the machine.

    EDIT: Okay, it seems like starting msbuild triggers this behaviour. No idea why, though.

    EDIT2: Apparently only when running it from Far Manager (actually, it's a batch file for me, which calls the vsvars32 batch and runs msbuild afterwards. It runs fine from cmd or PowerShell.

    EDIT3: Updating Far Manager to its latest version changed nothing. However, running msbuild directly (not through the batch file) worked even from Far.

    For completeness:

    • Far Manager

    • My PATH includes the directory D:\Users\Joey\Batches which contains a batch file msbuild.cmd with the following contents:

      @echo off
call "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat"
msbuild %*

    • Then, running msbuild from within Far seems to produce this problem. At least for me, reliably.


    • Related Answers
  • Јοеу

    It was a problem with clink. It has been fixed by now, but only in source, not in a release.