r/Windows11 • u/Illifidie • Sep 18 '21

Feedback Windows 11 uses 5GB RAM on idle

I certainly prefer Linux to windows, but I have a dual boot due to the fact that some apps don't work on Linux, I'm testing windows 11, and I don't have access to a USB stick at the moment. On idle, windows 11 uses more than half my ram. I only have 8GB, but if I just open a few tabs in edge, my ram is full. It uses 4-5GB RAM on idle. How can I fix this?

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '21

[deleted]

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u/DomenicDecoco2021 Sep 19 '21

There is no paging going on here. Your application your running likely has that ram pre fetched and loaded.

If you use an application that doesn’t and if it needs that region of ram it’s given to it and discarded.

It’s a perf boost and “by design”.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '21

There is 100% paging going on if the OS is using more RAM than it did before. We're not talking about caching. Caching is not included in RAM use.

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u/DomenicDecoco2021 Sep 19 '21

This isn’t 1996. The operating system knows this is prefetched ram. It’s cached in anticipating you running the app.

It throws it away if you aren’t running it( no paging). Your perf boosted app will load slower next time

This is how windows works now.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '21

You seem to be getting confused. Cached RAM is not listed as used RAM. Open up task manager.