Windows 11's High RAM Usage Is Mostly by Design, Engadget Explains
Engadget explains why Windows 11 often shows more than half of a PC's memory in use even with few apps open, and when the figure actually signals a problem.
In a report published on October 3, Engadget noted that 16GB of RAM remains the standard for modern computers, and that a PC appearing to use nearly all of it does not by itself mean that the memory is no longer sufficient. RAM temporarily holds data the processor needs to run applications and open files, and it offers much faster access than a hard drive or solid-state drive. The more memory a machine has, the more items it can keep open and ready to switch between.
The behavior comes from how recent versions of Windows treat memory as a resource to be used rather than conserved. Older versions of the operating system used only the RAM required to run whatever programs were open at the time. Windows now tries to predict what the user will need next and keeps that data in memory, which can mean an application that is opened frequently or a file that is regularly edited. Engadget said this makes the computer feel faster because the relevant content has already been loaded.
The work is handled by a process called SysMain, known as SuperFetch in older versions of Windows, which learns usage habits and keeps frequently used items cached in standby memory. Engadget offered the example of a browser opened every morning, which Windows is likely to hold in RAM so that it launches faster than it would if loaded from a storage drive. The result is that a PC may show more than half of its memory in use, or sometimes close to 100 percent.
To examine what is happening, users can press Ctrl, Shift and Esc together to open Task Manager, then select the Performance tab and Memory. Engadget advised ignoring the In use figure and checking Available instead, because cached data counts as available and Windows can reclaim it immediately. The more memory a machine has, the more Windows can devote to caching applications and files.
High memory usage can still point to a genuine problem. Engadget said slow performance, crashing applications or alerts that the computer is low on memory may indicate something else is wrong. In those cases users should check the Processes tab to identify the applications consuming the most memory and close any that are unnecessary, restart the PC if it has been running for a long time to clear memory leaks, and disable startup applications that are not used so they do not occupy memory in the background.
Third-party memory cleaner applications claim to reduce RAM usage, but Engadget said they are generally not worth using. Although they may lower the percentage of memory in use, pushing applications into the page file, the portion of a storage drive Windows uses as backup memory, makes them slower. The report added that such tools are not a long-term solution because the system will eventually reload everything.
Some users disable SysMain entirely and return to the older approach to memory management. Engadget said it would not recommend this in most cases, but noted that on an older PC with a mechanical hard drive the constant preloading can keep the disk busy and make the system sluggish. Users in that situation can press Windows and R, type services.msc, locate SysMain, open its Properties, click Stop and set the startup type to Disabled.
Engadget repeated that it does not recommend the change unless the machine is an old system with a hard disk drive and limited memory. For computers still equipped with 8GB of RAM or less, the report said the proper solution is an upgrade to 16GB or more, even though memory is more expensive than it has been.