Microsoft has a tough task ahead in optimizing Windows 11, with Project “K2” described as an effort to effectively eliminate bloatware issues, AI overuse, and deliver better gaming performance, and it wants to pair the latter with Valve’s SteamOS to regain user trust.
I think this is a move by Microsoft that all of its users can support, because Windows 11 certainly needs it. I’ve had quite a few complaints about the operating system for a long time, mainly because of the frustrating and persistent bugs with each update.
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Windows 11 and apps use more RAM than necessary
Using Windows RAM & Performance Optimizer on GitHub by Priyom Saha, I was able to reduce the amount of memory consumption with just one click.
Similar to many other RAM optimizers available on GitHub, this works via a script that eliminates unnecessary background apps and persistent bloatware from Windows 11, designed to run in an endless loop every 10 seconds. It also actively monitors and reduces RAM usage “in real time”, allowing memory to be reclaimed that could be used for more intensive tasks.
Using this tool, I discovered that Windows 11 and its apps (including non-Microsoft apps) use more RAM than necessary, resulting in usage drops of up to 6 GB. I tested scenarios where Microsoft Edge (or even Chrome) is running in the background with only a few tabs open, and I would see RAM usage drop from 17 GB to 11 GB within minutes.
The drops aren’t as significant at idle; however, I still noticed that when running the script at least 1 GB or 2 GB of memory is reclaimed. While that’s not a huge amount for systems 16GB or larger, it’s a bigger problem for lower-end PCs or handhelds.
I should clarify that the issue isn’t just Windows 11, as it’s clear other apps are in use, but browsers like Edge or Chrome and entertainment apps like Spotify shouldn’t be using that much memory, especially when engaging in basic background tasks (at least compared to gaming or editing).
The combination of Windows and non-Windows applications (e.g. Chrome), along with operating system bloatware and usual background activity, apparently creates excessive RAM usage. This is exactly why it’s nice to hear Microsoft is addressing this issue with Project K2 for Windows, and hopefully we can start seeing major improvements in the near future.
In the meantime, there’s always Saha’s RAM optimizer.
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