Windows 10 TRIM: Why and How to Use it?

What is TRIM in Windows 10?

TRIM in Windows 10 is used to allow the operating system to give information to the Solid State Drives; to wipe the blocks of data internally, which is not in use anymore. TRIM was introduced soon after the introduction of SSDs. In the case of SSDs, deleting and formatting operations are little difficult to handle, which slows down the write operations.

Trimming helps the SSD to handle the garbage collection more efficiently.

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Microsoft has done a great job that makes the SSD’s life easier, healthy and longer, in Windows 10. Well, Windows 7 was the first platform, where the TRIM emerged. Back then, it started recognizing the SSD drivers and optimizes them to work better with the platform.

Consecutively, then came the Windows 8, where the features of the TRIM were treated with some enhanced features. And now, it’s the Windows 10 that brings-in more improvements for the SSDs.

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Alternatively, there is also, Reset options that are already available. But it deletes the complete data from the drive, unlike the TRIM feature. Moreover, the TRIM also enables an efficient internal background garbage collection mechanisms; by notifying the SSD of pages which no longer contain valid data. Accordingly, when a file is deleted, the OS will mark the file sectors as free. Thus after trimming, the SSD will not have any contents of the block while writing new data to a page of flash memory.

Why TRIM is used in Windows 10?

As you all know, when you delete any data or files from your Solid State Drive, Windows marks it as deleted. Yet the data is retained on the drive physically. Yes, it’s all because of the SSD controller’s garbage collection. Thus, here comes a savior, the TRIM. It will let those physically retained chunks to be wiped so that they become empty and ready to be written. With the help of the TRIM in Windows 10, the deleted data in your storage can be freed up and from the next time, you can enable the write operation to be performed faster.

How to Use TRIM in Windows 10?

Step-1: Check if TRIM is enabled – Using Command Prompt

Even though the TRIM is enabled by default in Windows 10, you have to ensure that the SSD TRIM support is enabled, anyway. You’ll have to check this via Command Prompt with Administrator privileges. To evoke the Windows 10 Command Prompt, type Command Prompt at the Cortana search box, then right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run as Administrator.

Windows 10 Trim 1

  • If your drive is formatted with NTFS, then type the following command- “fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify” and press Enter.

Windows 10 Trim 2

  • The fsutil is a Windows built-in system command line. It is used to check, whether the delete notification is enabled or disabled.

The result will be either,

NTFS DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Disabled)-> which infers TRIM is enabled (or)
NTFS DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Enabled) ->which infers TRIM is disabled

Windows 10 Trim 3

  • What’s more interesting is, the Windows 10 also checks, whether the TRIM is enabled or disabled on a ReFS file system too. Hence, no worries even if your drive is formatted with the ReFS system. Accordingly, the results for ReFS will be either of,

ReFS DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Disabled)-> which infers TRIM is enabled (and)
ReFS DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Enabled) ->which infers TRIM is disabled

If the above commands result in “1”, then you’ll probably need to know how to enable TRIM in Windows 10.

Step-2: Enable TRIM in Windows 10

Windows should automatically take care of the TRIM; if you have the latest version of the Windows with a modern solid-state drive. However in any case, if you’re notified that the TRIM in Windows 10 is disabled; then you’ll have to look forward to the steps to enable it.

Well, here it is. With the following command, you can forcibly achieve this task.

  • Run the following command in the Command Prompt– fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify NTFS 0
  • If yours is a ReFS File system, then type the following command- fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify ReFS 0

Windows 10 Trim 4

Now, a notice reading DisableDeleteNotify = 0 will be delivered, which means that the TRIM is enabled. That’s it! Further, if you’d like to disable the TRIM for some peculiar reason; then run the above-mentioned command, but replace the 0 with 1 instead.

Windows 10 Trim 5

Step-3: Set TRIM using Optimized Drivers app

Surprisingly in Windows 10, the TRIM is also put up in the Drive Properties, under the Tools menu. To invoke it, right click on the desired drive and select the Properties.

Windows 10 Trim 6

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Once getting into the Properties window, click the Tool tab, from the various tabs shown. In this case, the TRIM is integrated with a feature called Optimize that is found here. You can put this feature into action by just clicking it.

Windows 10 Trim 7

This will take you further to the Optimize Drives app; which allows you to execute the TRIM on a predefined schedule and even to run it manually.

Windows 10 Trim 8

For instance, let’s assume that you have deleted a heavy amount of data from the drive. Subsequently, by running the Optimize feature you can immediately retrieve the space back and improve the SSD’s performance.

As said earlier, you can schedule your desired timings to execute TRIM in your PC. By default, disk optimization is scheduled on a weekly basis. You can change this schedule if needed. It can be done by clicking the Change Settings button in the Optimize Drives window.

Windows 10 Trim 9

Therefore, all the aforementioned methods will help you to enable or disable the TRIM. You can even use the same commands on the Windows 7 and Windows 8 too, though we’re focusing only on the Windows 10. On the whole, you will enjoy all these great features that come with Windows 10. So there are no concerns about your SSD issues anymore. TRIM in Windows 10 has taken good care of them, out of the box.

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