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How to enable TRIM in Windows 7

Do you have a SSD? I’m currently planning to buy one to speed up Windows 7 (report will follow) a tad. The first thing you might want to do after installing your SSD is to enable TRIM on Windows 7.

What is TRIM?

In computing, a TRIM command allows an operating system to inform a solid-state drive which blocks of data are no longer considered in use and can be wiped internally. Source: Wiki

So, if you delete a file and it is no longer being used, TRIM tells your SDD to get get rid of the data blocks. Otherwise, if TRIM is not enabled you’d have a lot of garbage data blocks which can eventually slow down your SSD and therefore your overall performance. If you want to speed up Windows 7, you really should have TRIM commands enabled. Sounds like something you are interested in? Read on.

Enable or Disable TRIM

1. Step Open up an elevated command prompt. Read how here

If you don’t open an elevated command prompt as described above (link) you will get the error: The FSUTIL utility requires that you have administrator privileges.

2. Step Enter fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0 to enable TRIM in Windows 7. If you want to disable it simply change the 0 to a 1.

3. Step By default, I believe that Windows 7 is using TRIM commands. So, often you don’t have to change this setting and enable TRIM manually. You can check if TRIM is running on your PC by entering fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify.

[via http://ssdtechnologyforum.com/], which all SSD enthusiasts should check out, they have a lot of great reads about making SSD’s faster. SSD are still very rare and probably something only computer enthusiasts would consider, but I think running Windows 7 on a dedicated SSD can really increase your overall performance, so it might be well worth to spend some money on it.