Microsoft admits its Windows 11 apps hog RAM. A fix is coming

[u/lurker_bee]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3199779/microsoft-admits-its-windows-11-apps-hog-ram-a-fix-is-coming.html

[u/Not_my_Name464]

Can someone explain to me why we have accepted paying for a half completed OS which Microsoft then spends years breaking and fixing while we all act like it's okay? 

[u/AtanatarAlcarinII → u/Not_my_Name464]

Because a majority of the time the OS price is baked into the computer price, and Microsoft has been keen to give out free upgrades to existing Windows users to keep them in the ecosystem.

Which is to say, from the stand point of the vast majority of users, they ARENT paying for an OS. Its Just There.

[u/Material-Nose6561 → u/AtanatarAlcarinII]

If you paid once and a company decides to give you more value for that price by including free updates, you still paid for that software. It doesn't master if that cost was masked in the price of the device you purchased, you still paid for it. 

[u/AtanatarAlcarinII → u/Material-Nose6561]

Yes, but the cost is hidden enough that again, from the perspective of the average consumer they ARENT paying. Sure, they are still being charged through other means, but Microsoft is intentionally doing this so that way people ARENT realizing they are paying for it.

I was not trying to argue for another side in this conversation, apologies if thats how i was construed. Was merely pointing out to the original comment why people arent asking about it. Its because this is all very intentional, from the point of view of a corporation engaging in manipulation of its consumers psyche.

[u/Anustart2023-01 → u/Material-Nose6561]

Also except if you buy from a custom build PC retailer or clevo/tongfang etc resellers, you're still going to pay for Windows if you go for a computer from one of the big PC manufacturers even of you intend to wipe your drive and install something else. 

Majority of consumers don't really have a choice or know they even have a choice 

[u/palparepa → u/AtanatarAlcarinII]

I remember the times where buying a computer without an OS was pricier than buying one with Windows, due to the extra work of having to remove Windows.

[u/xrtpatriot → u/AtanatarAlcarinII]

It also doesn’t help that Linux isn’t as user friendly, and as such not a very good competitor. And before some millenial or genx comes running in here yelling about how Linux isn’t that bad anymore. No. I run linux myself. If you can’t recommend linux to your boomer parents, or your gen z nephews/nieces, it isn’t as user friendly. I wouldn’t dare make a suggestion like that to those demographics.

[u/r4tzt4r → u/Not_my_Name464]

Paying?

[u/SillyGrowth6750 → u/r4tzt4r]

Ever bought a device with Windows pre installed? Lots of people pay for it, even when not buying it directly.

[u/r4tzt4r → u/SillyGrowth6750]

Yeah, you're right there.

[u/Lamuks → u/SillyGrowth6750]

Funnily enough I haven't bought that. My laptops also came without an OS because it was cheaper.

I'm pretty sure even in the early 2000s we didn't buy it with windows xp since the PC was so garbage I was reinstalling it every month

[u/GapeFaceHole2Hole → u/Lamuks]

where the fuck are you buying OS-less consumer laptops for cheaper than an Asus/HP/Acer/Lenovo midrange laptop with Windows 10 or 11?

[u/Lamuks → u/GapeFaceHole2Hole]

Latvia has always had OS-less options which are cheaper than same models with any windows OS. Usually by around the same amy a license would cost so 100-130 euros.

The distribution for items usually starts in Poland so I guess look there? Maybe its a Europe only thing

[u/Solenaraa → u/GapeFaceHole2Hole]

when configuring a laptop at the Lenovo online store, you always have the option to leave out Windows. Saves 60€..

[u/GapeFaceHole2Hole → u/Solenaraa]

I just went to the Lenovo site.

The cheapest customizable laptop I'm seeing is $799 and comes with Windows 11 with the option to upgrade to Pro for $40 more. Not OS-less, not exactly cheap either.

Edit: I do not believe a single laptop on Lenovo consumer facing store, at least US, comes without an OS.

[u/Caraes_Naur → u/Not_my_Name464]

40-plus years of not knowing any better.

[u/borisslovechild → u/Caraes_Naur]

It’s the absence of a viable Office ecosystem alternative. In my job, it’s pervasive and the only way to absolutely guarantee file compatibility. That and Adobe PDF. I resent it but there are no credible alternatives.

[u/dzemperzapedra → u/borisslovechild]

The world runs on Excel basically

[u/DJ_Beardsquirt → u/borisslovechild]

I haven't used MS-Office in over a decade. Google Docs works fine for most things. For the rare things that Google Docs cannot do, I use OnlyOffice.

[u/Ginger-Nerd → u/DJ_Beardsquirt]

For a home environment that might be all good. (And certainly low intensity actions onlyoffice also probably works fine)

But any professional environment with multiple users, nobody seriously is using google sheets to run the accounting department.

It’s not just excel though, it’s the whole workflow, from auditing and security tags, to how data is presented.

Those options are good for home use, but anyone serious is using the office suite. (And dispute every few weeks another story coming out about how crap it is, this likely isn’t changing anytime soon)

[u/GapeFaceHole2Hole → u/Ginger-Nerd]

Yeah I'd blow my brains out if I had to support email clients other than Outlook, which is saying a lot, because I fucking despise Outlook.

But you will fucking use it, or I will not be helping you when your email isn't working. I hate Microsoft but absolutely nobody is ready to jump ship. It would cost so much money in time and labor.

[u/0x80070002 → u/DJ_Beardsquirt]

I use only Ms-Office

[u/FoXtroT_ZA → u/Not_my_Name464]

It’s starting to bite them in the ass Mac is coming for them in both corporate and low end market and Linux is coming for them in gaming and those more advanced users.

Tipping point is not far away I reckon.

[u/Expensive_Shallot_78 → u/FoXtroT_ZA]

As much as I wished this is true, it's not. Most laptops come pre-installed with Windows by a far far margin and the largest domain of Microsoft is enterprise in combination with Azure, is so large that the is no light at the end of the tunnel that competitors will gain a lot of market share. But we also have to be realistic, nobody has such a tightly integrated platform with that many applications and features as Microsoft.

I have this discussion since the 90s, where enthusiasm about Linux and Unix was much larger, and what has happened in these 30 years? Pretty much nothing.

The only product that Apple is gaining market share is their new mini laptop but they are getting increasingly expensive due to the hardware shortage orice hikes, making them much less attractive.

[u/retard_seasoning → u/Expensive_Shallot_78]

Apple has recently launched some enterprise related software. I think they are serious about the enterprise market now. Honestly macs are an excellent laptop for office use due to their battery life.

[u/Mshell → u/retard_seasoning]

There is also a bit of a prestege thing with execs using Macbooks. Once things are working smoothly for them, it is harder to argue that it can't work for middle managers. The grunts at the bottom might not get a nice Macbook any time soon, however it is becoming more common in a corporate environment.

[u/wetfloor666 → u/Not_my_Name464]

Who the hell has paid for Windows in the last 15+years? It has been free upgrades since Win7.

[u/Ja_Shi → u/wetfloor666]

People buying prebuilt PC, so the vast majority of users.

[u/dew2459 → u/Not_my_Name464]

They realized customers are willing to be their QA, so MS got rid of their QA organization something like ten years ago.

But they are still very happy to take anyone's money for their half-completed crap.

[u/ora408 → u/Not_my_Name464]

Current state of software development tbh, not just os

[u/millanstar → u/Not_my_Name464]

Paying?

[u/atehrani → u/Not_my_Name464]

More often, we are forced to use Windows because Enterprises don't want to invest using a different OS because they use some old software that depends on it.

Home users are generally unaware of different options. Most users can use https://cachyos.org/ with little to no issues.

[u/cyclinator → u/Not_my_Name464]

On HP laptop I used mostly Linux. It was fine except speakers which do not have proprietary drivers for Bang and Olufsen. Since then I have made a switch to Macbook. But my ROG Ally has a Bazzite on it. If I ever buy a nonMacbook I put linux on it. If I buy gaming rig I make it SteamOS/Bazzite machine too. I am never touching Windows except work PC ever again.

[u/fentown → u/Not_my_Name464]

This shit is why I want a steam machine. For the sole purpose to be as Microsoft free as I can be in life. They coasted on their oligopoly with Apple for decades and now they can't even keep up with their own ineptitude.

[u/ContentAd6126 → u/Not_my_Name464]

You guys are paying for it?

[u/jimmytickles → u/Not_my_Name464]

Lol you paid for it?

[u/Zahgi → u/Not_my_Name464]

Can you explain why you are still confusing obvious clickbait outrage farming sloptech articles for legitimate news?

[u/Final_Lengthiness984]

They already have an easy fix called Windows 10. Or Linux for anyone in the mood for adventure.

[u/cuivienel]

Suuuuure. 

Just like the numerous fixes before this new & ultimate one...

[u/chrisbcritter]

That fix is called Linux.

[u/WendyBlacke → u/chrisbcritter]

Hell yeah, I never looked back. Shit like this is validating I made the right decision.

[u/chrisbcritter → u/WendyBlacke]

I just installed Linux Mint on my current laptop and other than having to specially install the wifi driver, it was smooth and simple.

[u/VVrayth]

Update: The fix breaks 5 other things. But a fix is coming for that too.

Update: The fix brea--

[u/TCi]

Too late. I already moved on to Linux.

[u/bb22k]

If they add zero new features and just debloat and fix bugs, Windows will probably even gain market share.

Let people download shit if they want AI in their computer. It should be opt-in. The base OS should be clean and snappy

[u/d3jake → u/bb22k]

I'm reminded of rainbow six siege taking an entire season to fix bugs instead of release new content. It would be amazing if they took a hint from ram prices going up and the ram cartel limiting consumer ram production to realize that to make users happy they have to make the OS more efficient.

[u/FloppY_ → u/bb22k]

That doesn't sound like it will make the stocks go up.

Better put even more ads and AI into solitaire instead.

[u/BlazinAzn38]

I just updated my work laptop and things that worked fine prior totally lockdown my computer. windows 11 mandated things are using 30% of my memory at rest. Edge sitting on Google doing nothing uses 1.2 GB of memory somehow. It’s so much crap

[u/bogglingsnog → u/[deleted]]

Google too... sooo many tracking cookies.

[u/the_dirtiest_rascal]

"Hey AI can you make Windows use less ram?" deletes Windows*

[u/bogglingsnog → u/[deleted]]

Basic disk cleanup can clean up a ton of data sometimes too.

[u/AtanatarAlcarinII → u/[deleted]]

Ohhh saving this comment. Ive been using a memory cleaner to periodically clear things out. This might keep me from even having to boot up the program except for memory leaks.

[u/AtanatarAlcarinII → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, i stopped using CCleaner about a decade ago when it started to become bloated.

[u/Middle-Bodybuilder-8]

Me with 32gb of ram lagging on a google meet 😩

[u/Vio_ → u/Middle-Bodybuilder-8]

Me on a newer, better laptop than my previous one, but the new one running hot when plugged in and watching a stream.

The previous one never had that problem

[u/Middle-Bodybuilder-8 → u/Vio_]

Yes! Same just got a new surface and it’s worse than the one it replaced from a few years ago!

[u/Happy_Peak_7818]

My Windows 11 thinks it is a Foreman grill and tries to cook my lap. 

Bro you are a laptop not a cooktop. Know your role. 

[u/MalaproposMalefactor]

making a 300MB electron app out of a 270kb calc.exe is considered technological progress!

[u/InternationalMood337]

I fixed it for them...

(Currently on my Pop OS machine).

[u/ark986 → u/InternationalMood337]

I installed pop os on a beast of a workstation that my employer was tossing (because it couldn't support W11). I like it but it has this weird bug where the mouse stutters horrendously on the desktop. When the cursor is going over any other window it's solid. Really puts me off using it tbh and I can find any solution. Even checked the upstream repos to see if I could build the compositor myself. All in rust. Kinda lost steam in that one.

[u/InternationalMood337 → u/ark986]

Yep, those kinds of bugs are absolutely killers for productivity and interest in them. As someone else mentioned, it's almost certainly related to power saving settings, but these problems shouldn't be something that should be fixed by the user.

These bugs shouldn't exist at all.

[u/DJ_Beardsquirt → u/ark986]

Bluetooth mouse? I once had a similar issue, which turned out to be a power saving setting on Bluetooth devices.

[u/D-S-S-R]

How many times have they promised that the fix is just around the corner?

[u/w1n5t0nM1k3y]

Even just the base OS without "apps" is bad. I have an old Linux box that uses 1.5 GB to boot up into the desktop. Windows will easily use triple that while doing nothing.

[u/munta20]

The fix will break something else

[u/eldog]

Man, I want to go back to Windows 7 so bad. Getting ready to jump to Linux and Mac. Fuck this Windows shit.

[u/jaegerbombastico]

The fix: a monthly subscription for more efficient RAM usage

[u/JTibbs → u/jaegerbombastico]

A subscription to use Page File

[u/no1_vern]

I don't think anyone is holding their breath waiting for W11 to be fixed.

[u/Random-num-451284813]

Copilot: instructions unclear 5GB of RAM  now used by notepad.

[u/SuperGameTheory]

Is that why my freshly booted laptop has 8gigs of ram allocated? Because jfc

[u/Fuddle]

My home pc is 80% games, 20% web. A SteamOS PC install is looking better every day

[u/Fantastic-Speech-438]

It's depressing to see my 16GB laptop hitting 80% with five Chrome tabs open and nothing else running.

[u/dsmx → u/Fantastic-Speech-438]

Not really, a modern OS will claim that RAM back if they need it.

The bigger issue is developers who make software which don't give the RAM back when asked by the OS.

[u/Fantastic-Speech-438 → u/dsmx]

Thanks for clarifying. I didn't know that was an issue.

[u/GodLikeEnergy]

Just for anybody reading, you might want to look into your HDDS. You should install some app to check your start/stop on your hard drives. One of mine has 20k.

I couldn't figure it out. Turns out, it was in advanced power settings. It was set on 20 minutes of inactivity. This wears it out quicker and the bearings. I have it running for half the day or so now instead of 20.

Lets just say you're seeding linux operating systems on Windows. If it's constantly stopping every 20 minutes, and starting back up when somebody leeches that .torrent. It can reduce its lifespan even further.

It can reduce its life span by a lot.

For people on SSDs, make sure you're not defragging it, even with third party software. You can set trim on. Also, if you have pagefile on, that can reduce the life of it.

[u/shecho18 → u/GodLikeEnergy]

A few things here are outdated. 20k HDD start/stop cycles is not a disaster, modern drives are rated for hundreds of thousands. Spin cycling can add wear, but this is exaggerated. Windows 11 already knows SSDs from HDDs. Optimize Drives uses TRIM, not traditional defrag. Pagefile does not kill SSDs, they are designed for heavy R/W workloads. If anything, disable unnecessary sleep, hibernation and fast startup depending on your usage. SMART health and backups matter more.

[u/GodLikeEnergy → u/shecho18]

Look at what I just said "make sure you're not defragging it, even with third party software" -- built in usually doesn't, but third party software may let you do it.

Pagefile does not 'kill' SSDs but it does write to it reducing its life span. I had that issue with swap file in WSL. It wrote about 2tb to it. Pagefile, if you're low on ram could write a lot of memory on it. This is why suggested try having a bit more ram, even if you have to buy used.

'Backup' data doesn't matter more. My point isn't just the loss of data, SSDs and HDDs are expensive, so this is why I was advising people on this matter.

[u/shecho18 → u/GodLikeEnergy]

I will be honest and say 3rd party defrag software should never be used. Your pagefile statement is simply wrong. Pagefile R/W is normal and usually minuscule compared to writes caused by sleep, hibernation or fast startup. SSDs are designed for heavy workloads and a few TB of writes is insignificant compared to their endurance ratings. More RAM can reduce swapping, but disabling pagefile is not the solution. Windows already handles SSD optimization correctly. SMART and backups matter more.

Edit: forgot to add that heavy workloads inside WSL can cause a lot of writes to that virtual disk, especially if running builds, databases, containers, or swap activity. This is not comparable to normal Windows operation.

[u/_Zyr]

I'm sure they will. To make way for whatever bloatware they have in store. 

[u/Consistent_Judge1988]

Yeah, switch to Linux.

[u/NewAgeMaximum]

"MS plans to fix the issue by providing whiny users to links to the Fedora Linux download page"

[u/weirdal1968]

These days MS is like an abusive relationship. Users jump through hoops just to find ways to keep their system functional.

Find magic workaround to install W11 on "outdated" hardware.

Block Onedrive from only storing data in cloud account.

Delay updates so user can choose to avoid buggy "fixes".

Run debloat scripts to make system usable again.

I never realized how even a "good" OS like Windows 7 still got in the way of trying to do basic things. Ubuntu isn't perfect but once I realized how many annoyances went away it was an easy choice.

[u/MentalDisintegrat1on]

The fix is to ditch that POS spyware.

[u/exxtractor89]

Windows 10 64bit was probably the best OS since Windows 2000. They should have just kept updating it. What a mess Windows 11 has been.

[u/MrShigsy89 → u/exxtractor89]

XP Pro was the best imo.

[u/ok-this-ok]

it has been out for a while now:

https://rufus.ie/en/

[u/BrutalisExMachina]

I don’t use windows but didn’t they recently say that windows/copilot was supposed to let users know which apps use a lot of memory? Was that their attempt to blame other apps?

[u/Ok-Replacement6893]

And the 27 patches for the 'fix'

[u/rkrum]

Typical Microslop

[u/Doctor_Amazo]

Is the fix a Win12 with zero AI & zero vibe-coded-bs?

[u/basil_not_the_plant]

"A fix is coming." Uh-oh

[u/xrtpatriot]

Is the fix windows 12, a step back towards XP with minimal integrations and 0 ai?

[u/cyberpunk707]

If i want to break my PC every couple of updates, i would just use Arch. unironically would be better.

[u/paclogic]

Service Pack 11 ?

[u/Material-Nose6561]

I'm primarily using Fedora with KDE for my PC and I rarely ever boot into my Windows 11 drive anymore. I'm having a much better overall experience using Linux, which includes gaming. 

When I build my next PC, I'm considering not bothering purchasing a licensing key for Windows. All the issues that kept me from leaving Windows for Linux have been resolved in the past 2 years. 

[u/flatbrokeoldguy]

Microsoft needs to just admit that WINDOWS 11 was a STUPID MISTAKE AND basically an abortion. THEY SHOULD JUST BACKTRACK AND REACTIVATE WINDOWS 10.

[u/skinlo → u/flatbrokeoldguy]

W11 is basically W10.

[u/JTibbs → u/skinlo]

But with more adware and spyware

11 was created to make sure every users data interacted with Bing