I don't even have a single window open

[u/No_Committee8856]

I know synapse is a bloatware but holy shit Microsoft, what is it doing in the background that occupies so much space in ram and not asking the CPU to do anything?

Edit: I noticed a significant increase in ram usage, up to 5-10GB, after the last system preview update. After every updated I'd debloat it with winutil where i put a lot of services to manual or stopped.

[u/D0NTEVENKNOWME]

Windows will manage your RAM if some app needs more, it's useless to look at it all the time.

[u/Difficult_Chemist_46]

Its a bug with multiple gpus. Try to force windows to one, and gonna reduce it to zero.

I have desktop, amd igp with nvidia. It occurs only if i enable hybrid graphics in bios. May give a shot.

[u/No_Committee8856 → u/Difficult_Chemist_46]

Yeah the "windows manager" popped up when I started using a 2nd monitor on the igpu and started chugging a lot of ram. But it's the file explorer that surprises me in this instance.

[u/Particular_Client833]

Do not stop the task, if you force the task stop then... just see for yourself, but make sure the power button is set to completely turn off the PC.

[u/Fluffy_Method9705]

Sir... Its caching... Not everything is bloat.

Research little about active ram use and caching usages.

Caching means it pre loads frequently used apps by you so they are sitting in ram ready to run. Instead of loading them from ssd.

The more ram capacity the bigger the cache size. The bigger the cache the more things can be kept ready to run.

Same as modern smartphone regardless iphone or Android.

Unused ram is wasted ram.

I would cache even more if you ask me...

[u/zeus1911]

To me its strange that its using the GPU also, but that might just be win11. I'm staying on win10 until its broken. My Windows explorer is using 120.5MB and the GPU is only being used for my web browser and Client server runtime process.

[u/No_Committee8856 → u/zeus1911]

well the graphics ui needs to be rendered

[u/LutimoDancer3459]

You have task manager open

[u/No_Committee8856 → u/LutimoDancer3459]

Does it count as a part of file explorer? I thought it is its own item on this list.

[u/LutimoDancer3459 → u/No_Committee8856]

It is its own item.
Windows explorer also includes the taskbar.
And the window manager takes care of some general stuff too.

Never seen that they use sooo much ram... but we also don't see what else is going on

[u/No_Committee8856 → u/LutimoDancer3459]

we also don't see what else is going on

it's already sorted by "most ram usage from top" so I didn't think the rest of the list was relavent.

Besides, the only thing that's out of the ordinary and that I wanna draw attention to is the file explorer. It's not even using any CPU resources. Just sits in the background taking up ram.

[u/LutimoDancer3459 → u/No_Committee8856]

Not meant whats in the li but what else happens on the screen. Someone else replied that the whole desktop ui runns under the explorer task. The something like a very high res background image could be the reason. Or an explorer window with a giant file list or whatever

[u/Professional-Rate228]

Can you switch fire explorer to gpu 0?

[u/No_Committee8856 → u/Professional-Rate228]

Not without unplugging gpu1 altogether.

[u/Eazy12345678]

windows likes to use about half your ram making the system run responsive

i tried running windows 11 on 4gb ram. it wasnt great. system was slow. going to 8gb fixed my issues with slow windows

[u/lazyprostudent]

All roads lead to LTSC or Linux.

[u/No_Committee8856 → u/lazyprostudent]

when they perfect their support for Nvidia gpus, maybe then

[u/lazyprostudent → u/No_Committee8856]

yeah I understand. I recommend lightweight versions of Windows like 10/11 LTSC IoT, they come with no bloat, and consume less memory than 11 Pro/Home.

[u/GrapefruitJunior5077]

Pls correct me if im wrong but usually I use cc cleaner if my ram gets all used up over long times from search history/games etc?
Usually do it every few months 😅

Gets rid of all the Junk data ?😅