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Microsoft to optimize Windows 11 for PCs with 8GB of RAM
Notebookcheck • • technology
Key Points:
- Microsoft is working on optimizations for Windows 11 to improve performance on machines with 8GB of RAM, responding to rising memory prices that make upgrades less appealing.
- The initiative targets high idle memory usage, often close to 6GB on 8GB systems, largely caused by the WebView2 framework running multiple background tasks.
- Microsoft is transitioning components like File Explorer's Properties dialog to the lighter WinUI framework and promoting native app development over web-wrapped apps to reduce memory consumption.
- These optimizations will be rolled out gradually, with significant improvements expected by the end of 2026, benefiting millions of users relying on 8GB RAM configurations.
- On 4GB RAM systems, which is the minimum for Windows 11, the OS currently uses about 3GB of memory.
