How to Increase the file system memory cache in Vista/2003

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If you tend to open and close a lot of files, you may be able to increase performance by creating a larger value for a special cache setting with the file system utility command

fsutil behavior set memoryusage 2

According to Microsoft, this increases something called the “paged pool” memory. Do not use if you are already consuming large amounts of system memory with other activities. If performance after the change is unsatisfactory, undo it with the command

fsutil behavior set memoryusage 1

To check the current value, type in this command:

fsutil behavior query memoryusage

These commands require administrator privileges. The commands change a Registry setting and take effect after a reboot.

Manual Registry Hack

You can also set this value by changing a registry parameter. Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then navigate down to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Double-click on the NtfsMemoryUsage key on the right-hand side and change the value to 2. Here’s the available values

Not Set: 0

Set to Default: 1

Increase Cache: 2

According to the documentation the default setting is 1, but by default the key is set to 0. Typically in that scenario the setting of 0 means “Not Set”, which means the system uses the default setting. You should be able to change the value to either 0 or 1 in order to change this back to default.