By disabling the Windows prefetch and superfetch features, you can avoid generating prefetch files and the overhead associated with prefetch and superfetch operations. This action can reduce the growth of linked-clone machines and minimize IOPS on full virtual machines and linked clones.
To disable the prefetch and superfetch features, you must edit a Windows registry key and disable the Prefetch service on the virtual machine.
The following steps apply to Windows 7 and Windows 8. The steps might vary on different Windows operating systems.
Prerequisites
See the Microsoft TechNet Web site for information on how to use the Windows Registry Editor.