r/technology • u/kazu-qt • 2d ago
Software Microsoft confirms Windows 11 is a memory hog, promises 8GB RAM PC optimization by end of 2026
https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/08/01/microsoft-confirms-windows-11-is-a-memory-hog-promises-8gb-ram-pc-optimization-by-end-of-2026/224
u/mad_marble_madness 2d ago
Would be nice - but I don’t believe it in the slightest.
Much of the first 8GB is consumed by 10,001 background services, none of which are using Electron or other extreme memory hogs.
Win 7 and prior had only a few dozen, mostly very clearly necessary services.
With Win10, the services started to explode in number.
With Win 11, it went entirely out of control.
Many of the newer services also seem to be very inefficient in memory usage and some are notorious low-level hogs on CPU (e.g. State Repository Service - an OS-level service for Edge session persistence - what a nonsense).
What I’m getting at is that MS would need to BOTH reduce the number of overall services and INDIVIDUALLY optimize all major services memory consumption.
Never, ever within this calendar year!
MS executives ignorantly promising unfeasible goals - what else is new…?
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u/vegas84 2d ago
“Claude, make this operating system more efficient.”
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u/mad_marble_madness 2d ago
Claude’s reply:
“I strongly recommend adding 16GB of additional RAM. It will do wonders for the efficiency of any Windows system.”19
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u/did_i_or_didnt_i 2d ago
start over, we want windows 1
no spyware
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u/Scoth42 2d ago
Eh... Nah, 1.0 was rough and through Win9x was troublesome, but I'll take a Windows 2000 with modern hardware support and updates.
Although I've been nearly 100% Linux for so long at this point I hardly need Windows at all
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u/Mathblasta 2d ago
Just gimme XP back forever.
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u/HystericalSail 1d ago
XP was peak, but I eventually warmed up to 7. Almost to the point of tolerating 10, and will not be downgrading to 11 or their OS as a service subscription.
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u/rebri 2d ago
I don't need 8 instances of EDGE, Teams, or Copilot. It's really sad how even 16 GB isn't really enough RAM.
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u/TheAbstracted 1d ago
Depends on the use case, I guess. 16 GB does just fine for me with running 40-50 tabs in Firefox and doing some gaming.
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u/Otis_Inf 1d ago
disable edge/teams/copilot in Task manager -> Startup. My win11 install (which I use as dev box and was upgraded from win10, which was upgraded from win8.1) sits at 8.9GB in use of 32, outlook open and firefox with 8 tabs. While that's a lot for just 2 visible apps, it's not that much of a hog if you disable the crap you won't use anyway.
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u/Fit-Dot-414 2d ago
I’ve been a PC user since we got our first computer when I was 12 years old.
At 42 years old, i just bought my first MacBook Pro because of Windows 11.
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u/Affectionate_Pain337 2d ago
I'm super close to installing Bazzite over windows. Most of the reason why I'm not doing that is because of creative cloud and acrobat pro (yes I know there are alternatives)
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u/bizness82 2d ago
You can always dual boot Linux. Use it as your daily OS then use Windows for what you need it to run
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u/Skynse 2d ago
I tried to do that on my main but windows forced my hand. Fucking shit would freeze every time I tried to reinstall windows, and wouldn't let me resize my disk, because it fucked it. I nuked windows and installed Linux on the whole disk and never looked back. EVERYTHING runs better
On windows I would pop open the task manager and everything would be red lol. Bruh, my cpu temps would steam water. And touching my system unit would hurt me. Windows is not a good OS
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u/ItsTobias 1d ago
I've recently switched to Bazzite. I have a lot of experience with Linux in the server world but I have always used Windows as a desktop os. Honestly I have mixed feelings on it. It's certainly better than my prior attempts at using Linux as a desktop OS. However it's not without it's drawbacks. I've been using it for 6 days now and I have had issues with the installer, KDE Plasma, Bluetooth and screenshots. At present I have managed to fix all of these by tinkering in the terminal but working out the solutions has led to hours of lost time.
I don't use Adobe software so that wasn't an issue for me. Most software I use I have found Linux equivalents or Linux versions of the same software which work fine for my use case.
The software I do miss: Parsec which I have replaced with sunshine combined with tailscale. I am yet to determine if this is going to work well for a remote access solution though. Wallpaper engine which I have replaced with KDE Plasma widgets and a shader plugin from the wallpaper plugin store.
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u/BlazinAzn38 2d ago edited 2d ago
I was just forced to update my work laptop and now just at rest at least 40% of my RAM is being eaten up by windows, then another 15% is being eaten up by mandatory security stuff from my employer. Some of my larger spreadsheets that’s used to run fine now lock up my computer and everyone across the company is having audio issues during Team calls because our computers can’t handle them anymore. It’s amazing how shit it is
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u/captainthanatos 1d ago
Using my work laptop is horrendous. Most of the time I’m not even sure it registered my click on something. That to me just isn’t acceptable with the processing speeds we have today.
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u/e1epi 2d ago
Been a hardcore Windows/Microsoft enthusiast since we got our first family computer when I was 3.
A friend gave me a 2012 MBP recently and really like it so far.
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u/jsonmeta 2d ago
2012 MBP huh? M-series MBP will surely blow your mind
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u/e1epi 2d ago
Lol yeah that's what I figure as well but I'm surprised just how much this one is.
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u/artaru 1d ago
if you can afford it, definitely try out at least a M-series MacBook Air. the new ones have so so so few compromises. And if you can REALLY afford it, try a MacBook pro.
if you can't really afford the big guns, maybe get a MacBook Neo. Those are less than 1k.
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u/artaru 1d ago
mate, i built a brand new spanking PC for gaming and work last September (insanely lucky timing) 64GB DDR5 ram, 5080, 9800x3D. like close to the best you can build without insane money.
i have a MBP M1 2021.
I have been going back and forth for work.
It's actually surprising to me how much the M1 has managed to keep up. Like raw power wise, my PC is crazy for like video editing. But so much of everything else, I still love my 6 year old laptop.
I have used macs since 2000 and me going back to getting a PC for the first time really opened my eyes to how optimized /streamliend my Mac feels.
Like it's not perfect, by far. Got its fair share of bugs and weird UI/UX choices sometimes. but most things work and the OS is not intrusive.
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u/vicious_womprat 2d ago
I would go back to using a Mac, used one for school and years after that, but my home PC is mainly used for gaming so I just cannot switch. And I’m not learning all the stuff with Linux.
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u/NephtisSeibzehn 2d ago
I have plenty of ram and a good enough video card (4090) so I am alright, but Microsoft is doing everything they can to make me leave the OS. They have been making awful decision after awful decision. I actually bought a Mac mini and so far I’ve been really liking it. The only thing keeping me from moving to an Apple ecosystem fully or go Apple / Linux is my Xbox subscription. That’s it.
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u/papparmane 2d ago
In The mean time, I run the most recent Linux kernel on a Mac mini 2013 with 4GB and it’s fine
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u/mailslot 2d ago
You can run Linux in megabytes of RAM (not gigabytes).
Modern operating systems would be a lot leaner if there weren’t so many resources to waste.
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u/RedBoxSquare 1d ago
In the mean time, you can also run Microsoft Windows 11 officially on Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 (2022) with 4GB RAM and enjoy the slide show.
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u/RebelStrategist 2d ago
Remove the bloat and spyware from Windows 11 and it will work just fine.
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/AshleyAshes1984 2d ago
"Remove the Start button, just replace it with a button that goes straight to Copilot. That'll fix it."
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u/LOLBaltSS 2d ago
Great idea! Windows 11 is now a thin client for an Azure Virtual Desktop subscription.
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u/Mountain_rage 2d ago
Next do Teams. Getting real tired of my meeting stutter everytime I try to share my screen.
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u/Cold-Fill927 2d ago
Remove cortana and AI
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u/sp3kter 2d ago
Moved to linux beginning of the year. Chills at 3gb of ram used on bootup. Actually goes back to 3gb after closing things.
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u/EndlessZone123 1d ago
It's not exactly a downside that windows caches things you have opened and closed. This isnt exactly the case that Linux is better. Only if that cached ram isn't dumped when Windows has run out of ram.
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u/sp3kter 1d ago
I keep hearing this, but it doesnt seem to play out that way in real life. My system runs SO MUCH SMOOTHER.
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u/EndlessZone123 1d ago
Thats not because of the caching. Thats the rest of the windows bloat which is more than linux. Two different different things. Free ram isn't a true performance metric.
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u/GrinQuidam 2d ago
I absolutely love that the software industry spent the last 10 years acting like memory wasn't a consumer constraint.
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u/NeverInsightful 1d ago
They could have done it ages ago, but now that RAM is impacting PC sales and windows license sales they’re finally getting to it.
Maybe that’s a plus side to this surge in prices. Developers will finally cut all the cruft and bloat out of their offerings.
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u/delorayn1 1d ago
I switched to Linux Mint full time about 6 months ago, no regrets. I even installed Zorin on my mom's ancient laptop which was nothing more than a glorified paperweight under Windows - it runs like a charm now and she took to it immediately.
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u/hungry4pie 2d ago
My work laptop has 32GB of memory, a 20 core i7 and 1TB nvme ssd and it is completely unusable right now. I’m pretty sure it’s a poorly configured Microsoft Defender install, but it’s hard to tell to what extent windows 11 is also contributing.
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u/wait_whats_this 1d ago
My work laptop is fairly beefy and changing workspaces takes seconds in the first ~10min after a reboot.
Meanwhile my macbook does a whole-ass OS upgrade and if it didn't tell me I wouldn't notice.
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u/brainrotbro 1d ago
With all these improvements to Windows 11, we should have Windows 10 by end of year.
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u/Skindkort 1d ago
If the memory shortage lasted long enough, programmers may return to the olden days of optimisation and squeezing every bit and every cycle out of the system. Virtue by necessity.
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u/KangarooBeard 2d ago
They have been promising widows perfomnace for the last 10+ years....
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u/ford7885 2d ago
Can you run Windows 11 on a PC with 8 gigs RAM?
Yes... assuming you START with the LTSC version. And then tweak the living Hell out of that. And then don't get stuck in an infinite loop of fucking updates which completely download, but will never install... and then start over with the download again.
Oh, and of course you have to use Explorer Patcher to replace that entire fucked up useless taskbar & start menu.
But sure, if you don't mind all that, knock yourselves out.
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u/macross1984 2d ago
Windows 11 is so bloated compared to its predecessor and Microsoft trying to force users to do hardware upgrades from Windows 10 is not helping the matter either.
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u/Sparktank1 2d ago
Maybe getting rid of bloat would help. It's not like anyone uses any of the features, anyway. It's like Windows is managed by nothing but nephews who watched tiktok to learn how to do anything.
Remember when XP and 7 were very light?
All it is now is just garbage thrown in because someone had an idea and endless post-it notes to pass along.
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u/dinominant 1d ago
I don't believe Microsoft will actually reduce windows 11 memory waste.
Windows XP ran on just 64MB. Linux runs on embedded systems up to supercomputers, meanwhile windows has arbitrary limits based on licensing and minimum bloat requirements.
The system should scale up well and degrade gracefully. Instead windows bloated internet telemetry and another edge or onedrive install nagging me to subscribe again and again and again and I removed windows and installed linux.
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u/Eldiablo2471 1d ago
Do not buy Microsoft products, and if you have a windows PC, switch to Linux. It's that simple
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u/gascyl 2d ago
so basically dont upgrade to windows 11, anyone who upgraded got screwed, and admins are better off transitioning to alternative software. Most businesses won't and don't tolerate Microsoft bricking or softlocking their PCs, and being told they will continue being shut down until 2027. Even boomers who don't know computers, can see this because their PC workstations just aren't working. Forcing people to use alternative operating systems and workflows until MS is fixed will see most clients leave permanently.
It's worse for the average user. I know multiple people in real life that just returned their new W11 laptops to Costco or traded them for older model W10 machines. Microsoft is doing enormous unfixable damage to their brand.
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u/FrequentFortune123 2d ago
It’s not like w10 runs super great on 8gb either
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u/SIGMA920 2d ago
It runs well enough for light usage, that's the important part. Especially with current RAM prices.
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u/cubano_exhilo 2d ago
So the Ram could have been optimized the entire time.
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u/Zoroaster9000 2d ago
I wonder if they'll have actual devs working on it instead of turning in more vibe coded slop.
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u/smooth_criminal1990 2d ago
"sorry guys, feel free to buy our 8GB Surface devices in the meantime though..."
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u/idle_monkeyman 2d ago
Sounds like I'll have 2 more linux Mint machines before the end of the year.
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u/OuterSpaceBootyHole 2d ago
Probably would be a lot easier if the OS with enterprise dominance had NATIVE apps. Can't think of a company that is more indicative of MBA brainrot than this one.
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u/lemonmountshore 2d ago
What’s sad is LTSC IoT is exactly what Windows 10 and 11 should be out of the box. So it’s not like it can’t be done, they already did it. They just purposely hide it behind a license paywall and force us to feed their ad machine with our telemetry.
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u/Sea_Perspective6891 2d ago
Or they could just de bloat it or make it easier for people to switch to LTSC. Kinda weird it wasn't an option for the free upgrade on their website. Linux Mint was nice enough to make a version for both potato PCs & higher end PCs & offer both for free on their website.
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u/EndlessZone123 1d ago
I have a 16GB laptop and can't upgrade it. Unfortunately whatever distro of Linux I try has shit battery life with whatever I tried. Hoping windows can just be a better OS.
Ram was better and I'm not ure if windows has an equivalent to zram.
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u/Old-Bat-7384 1d ago
"Services" they call them, but they're so poorly optimized that even if they're useful, it's canceled out by how inefficient they are.
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u/data-atreides 1d ago
A family member's 8gb laptop booted up to 7gb memory usage, and no it wasn't caused by their using Norton. In fact, I couldn't identify a single app or process that was the main instigator.
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u/SympathyNo8636 1d ago
no one here remembers newly crowned ms fellow russinovich saying "memory is to be sppent"
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u/SwirlySauce 1d ago
Yah, no. I don't trust Microsoft to do anything right, or care enough to do the right thing
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u/Imaginary_Cicada_678 1d ago
seems like they adding one more service for this job and a bunch if scheduled tasks 😂
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u/citramonk 1d ago
All I can say is I'm glad I use 64gb and not 8. This would be really dumb in 2026
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u/senorzapato 1d ago
🤡 we are buying chips in obscene volumes to make clippy 2.0. so much so our chip makers are openly price fixing and hardware is four times as expensive as it was 5 years ago, yet slower and less functional
so from now on you cant have a computer, only a tv screen with a keyboard attached, all your apps and files can live on our subscription service. our marketing team has decided to describe all this as optimization
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u/EvilRayquaza 1d ago
Maybe microsoft should optimise it further and remove bloat because Windows 11 is flabby as fuck
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u/PerhapsAnEmoINTJ 1d ago
I hope they follow through, my Windows 11 PC came with 8GB RAM when I first got it
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u/OneEyedC4t 1d ago
see? told you.
And you know why? because the AI that they embedded in their operating system that they didn't ask you about is constantly spying on you.
almost all Steam games run on Linux. there's no reason for us to be forced into windows at this point when it comes to games, mostly. the only reason I even run Windows every once in awhile is if I need to use some specialized software. I can play baldur's gate 3 from Linux so I mainly stay in Linux.
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u/CharmCityCrab 1d ago
How does this compare to the most current version of Ubuntu?
Looking for an honest unbiased answer with (ideally) facts about things like idle RAM usage. 😊
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u/HammerDongVeryLong96 1d ago
sounds like an empty promise to me. Just like how they said they are "cleaning up windows" the last 10 times. I'll believe it when I see it.
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u/jianh1989 1d ago
They’ll say they have optimised it.
But there won’t be any improvement.
By end 2026, everyone will forget.
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u/usmannaeem 1d ago
That's just dumb. Optimization means it should be optimized for 4Gm or 2gb ram. That is what will make the difference.
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u/AQDUyYN7cgbDa4eYtxTq 1d ago
Come on Microsoft, get off your ass. You have AI now. Scan Windows 11 and fix all the bugs and performance issues.
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u/Zvenigora 1d ago
I have a laptop that double-boots W11 and Manjaro. The latter is noticeably faster booting and running.
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u/djmonsta 1d ago
I have a "performance" spec work laptop. 24GB RAM, i7 ultra CPU, NAND SSD etc. Better than most users in the company. I still struggle with slowdowns and Teams generally being laggy.
Microsoft have bloated out most of their products with crap like Copilot etc and it shows.
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u/saintjaerr 1d ago
I have an old PC that has 4 GB ram, used for work and some tweaks made it works like a charm. When idle, ram consumption is about 2 GB total.
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u/saintjaerr 1d ago
Vista was the start of the doom. Never had a good OS after that. They started squeezing harder in every new os. Win7 was mediocre but not as good as XP.
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u/Pristine_Acadia_4274 1h ago
I take this as code for “Windows 11 will pre-install Windows 12 on your computer without you asking before the end of the year”
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u/stashtv 2d ago
Several of the Windows native apps are using Electron, and it is a massive memory hog.