System and compressed memory is a memory process responsible for various functions related to system and memory. This process is mostly responsible for the compression of files and folders stored on your hard drive and the management of RAM. On average, the System and compressed memory process is only supposed to take up a small amount of CPU and Disk. However, in some cases, the System and compressed memory process starts using up 100% of affected users’ Disks, causing their computers to become incredibly slow and hindering the duties and responsibilities of other processes and tasks.
This problem first came to light early this year and has been spreading more and more ever since. The System and compressed memory process can cause high disk usage and may also cause high cpu usage by using upto 100% of your Disk because of one of two reasons – you messed around with your virtual memory settings and ended up changing the paging file size from Automatic to a set value or the System and compressed memory process is simply going haywire. On the bright side, it is entirely possible for Windows 10 users affected by this issue to fix it, and the following are the most effective solutions to this problem. If it’s just this process causing spikes in the usage, we wouldn’t recommend installing additional physical memory.
Solution 1: Set the paging file size for all drives back to automatic
The paging file size for all drives in Windows 10 is, by default, set to allow Windows to automatically manage it. The paging file size can be set to a custom value by the user, but doing can lead to problems with memory compression in Windows 10, ultimately leading to 100% disk usage by the System and compressed memory process. If you customized the paging file size for any of your drives in the past and are suffering from this problem, this solution is the way to go.
- Open the Start Menu. Click on Settings. Search for “performance”.
- Click on the search result named Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.
- When the Performance Options window pops up, navigate to the advanced
- Click on Change… under the Virtual memory
- The Virtual Memory window will now pop up. In this window, make sure that the box beside automatically manage paging file size for all drives option is checked, meaning that this option is enabled.
- Click on OK.
- Click on Apply and then on OK in the Performance Options window
Solution 2: Disable the System and compressed memory process altogether
If Solution 2 did not work for you or if you managed to get to the Virtual Memory window and saw that the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives option was already enabled, the size of the paging files for your drives is most certainly not the culprit. That being the case, you can still fix this problem by simply disabling the System and compressed memory process. To do so, you need to:
- Hold the Windows Key and Press X. Choose Control Panel. Search for Administrative Tools and choose Task Scheduler.
- In the Task Scheduler, double-click on Task Schedule Library in the left pane to expand its contents.
- Double-click on Microsoft in the left pane to expand its contents.
- Double-click on Windows in the left pane to expand its contents.
- Click on MemoryDiagnostic in the left pane to have its contents displayed in the right pane.
- In the right pane, locate and right-click on a task named RunFullMemoryDiagnosticEntry.
- Click on Disable in the contextual menu.
- Close the Task Scheduler and restart your computer. Check to see if the issue persists once your computer boots up.
Solution 3: Disable the Superfetch service
In Windows 10; Superfetch has been renamed to SysMain.
Superfetch / Sysmain is a Windows service, the purpose of which is to maintain and improve system performance over time. However, even though Superfetch is a part of the Windows Operating System, it can sometimes be more damaging to a Windows computer than beneficial – the most superior example of this being the fact that Superfetch can, in many cases, be the cause of 100% disk usage issues, including this one. Thankfully, though, if the Superfetch service is causing the System and compressed memory process to use up 100% of your computer’s disk bandwidth, all you need to in order to fix the problem is disable the Superfetch service. The following are the two options that you have when it comes to disabling the Superfetch service:
Option 1: Disable the Superfetch / Sysmain service from the Services manager
- Press the Windows Logo key + R to open a Run
- Type services.msc into the Run dialog and press Enter.
- In the Services window, scroll down and locate and double-click on the service named Sysmain.
- Click on Stop.
- Set the Sysmain / Superfetch service’s Startup type to Disabled.
- Click on Apply.
- Click on OK.
- Close the Services.
- Restart your computer.
Option 2: Disable the Superfetch service using the Registry Editor
- Press the Windows Logo key + R to open a Run
- Type regedit into the Run dialog and press Enter to launch the Registry Editor.
- In the left pane of the Registry Editor, navigate to the following directory:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > Memory Management
- In the left pane of the Registry Editor, click on the PrefetchParameters sub-key under Memory Management to have its contents displayed in the right pane.
- In the right pane of the Registry Editor, locate and double-click on the registry value titled EnableSuperfetch to modify it.
- Replace whatever is in the EnableSuperfetch registry value’s Value data field with 0.
- Click on OK.
- Close the Registry Editor.
- Restart your computer.
Once you have disabled the Superfetch service and restarted your computer, wait for the computer to boot up and then check to see whether or not the problem has been resolved.
Solution 4: Kill the Speech Runtime Executable process
A myriad of users affected by this issue were able to deduce that the root of the problem is a process named Speech Runtime Executable, a system process which, by the looks of things, has to do with audio recording through connected microphones and/or speech recognition. These users discovered that the Speech Runtime Executable process was, in their case, causing the System and compressed memory process to use obscenely large amounts of their computers’ resources. In cases where the Speech Runtime Executable process is the culprit, simply killing the process gets the job done and takes the System and compressed memory process’s resource consumption down to nominal levels. In order to kill the Speech Runtime Executable process, you need to:
- Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to launch the Task Manager.
- In the Processes tab of the Task Manager, locate and click on a process named Speech Runtime Executable to select it.
- Click on End task.
If the Speech Runtime Executable process was the cause of this issue in your case, you should see the System and compressed memory process’s resource consumption go down significantly as soon as you click on End task. Unfortunately, the Speech Runtime Executable process is a system process, which is why it may pop up quite often. If the Speech Runtime Executable process does start itself back up occasionally and cause this problem again and again, your best bet would be to repeat the steps listed and described above to simply kill it and restore peace.
Solution 5: Optimize your computer’s visual effects for best performance
Some users affected by this issue have also reported success with optimizing their Windows 10 computer’s visual effects for best performance, with the users’ computers, in such cases, going down from about 100% disk usage at the hands of the System and compressed memory process to 0-25% immediately following the application of this solution.
- Right-click on the Start Menu button to open the WinX Menu.
- Click on System in the WinX Menu.
- Click on Advanced system settings in the left pane. You might be asked for confirmation of the action or your password, and if you are, be sure to provide what you are asked for.
- Navigate to the Advanced
- Click on Settings… under the Performance
- Click on Adjust for best performance to select it.
- Click on Apply and then on OK.
- Click on Apply and then on OK in the System Properties
- Close any remaining windows and restart the computer. When the computer boots up, check to see whether or not the issue has been fixed.
Solution 6: Check to see if your computer’s RAM is failing or has failed
In many cases, this problem is caused by failed or failing RAM. If failed or failing RAM is the root of this issue in your case, simply replacing the computer’s RAM stick(s) with brand new ones fix the problem. If the computer has more than one stick of RAM, only one of the installed sticks may be faulty. If that is the case, all you need to do is replace each stick of RAM one by one, booting the computer up and checking to see whether or not the issue persists after replacing each stick. The faulty stick of RAM will be the one without which the computer no longer suffers from large-scale resource consumption at the hands of the System and compressed memory process. While it may be hard to fathom, it is not impossible for failing or failed RAM to cause the System and compressed memory process to hog and abuse your computer’s resources.
If the solutions listed here does not work for you, please visit 100% Disk Usage Windows 10 (Additional Steps)
User Suggested Method
In case this is useful to anyone, I’ve been plagued by this problem ever since upgrading to Windows 10, and I was ready to try option 3 above and disable the thing.
But when I got into the Task Scheduler, I noticed that the Last Run Result was 0x800710e0, which seemed suspicious to me. When I looked up this error, it turned out to be “The operator or administrator has refused the request.” Seems like some sort of access problem.
The task was set to run as “Administrators”, whatever that is. I’m on Windows 10 Pro, which was an upgrade from Windows 8.1 Pro, which was an upgrade from Windows 8 Home. So somewhere in its deep dark past, I had had the Home version. Not sure if that’s relevant…
When I went into each Memory task and changed the “use the following user account” to be my own (and I have administrator rights), suddenly the error codes went to 0 or 0x40010004 (which I haven’t found an identity for yet, but it doesn’t seem to be bad – at least it’s not an 0x8xxx HRESULT!), and my system is a whole lot happier. The system and compressed memory task is running in the background but using a more reasonable amount of syste m resources.
My theory: somehow in the Windows 10 upgrade process, that task got set up in a funky way, and the process kept thrashing with access errors. Now that it can do what it wants to do, peace has returned. 🙂
Again, in case that helps anyone (especially if you wish to not disable the process and you can make it happy this way instead).
