Over the past several years, my big gig file stabilized (after let’s say 10 minutes or so after loading it) at about 45% of my ram (128 GB) after loading up my gig file.
It seems like after a Windows update yesterday, my gig files is now stabilizing at 35% of ram use.
Everything seems to be working fine. So, unless I am missing anything, this is a good thing!
Has anyone else run into this?
Jeff
Maybe Windows now has better memory management 
That would be nice!
hasn’t been my experience with Microsoft since the 1980s. Computers were made faster so that MS could get lazier in their programming.
AI thinks differently.
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Yes, recent Windows 11 updates have introduced significant improvements to how the operating system handles system memory.
Following announcements earlier in the year, Microsoft has been steadily rolling out performance-focused updates targeting core system efficiency.
A major driver behind the improved RAM efficiency is Microsoft’s ongoing effort to transition the core Windows shell (including the Start Menu, Taskbar, and File Explorer) away from older, fragmented frameworks and web-hybrid layers to the desktop-native WinUI 3 framework.
By streamlining the rendering pipeline and offloading elements to the GPU, the OS uses fewer system resources.
It implements “on-demand” virtualization techniques, meaning components are only held in memory when they are actually visible on your screen.
The architecture overhaul addresses a long-running complaint: excessive idle RAM consumption. Updates rolling out through 2026 have target allocations that reduce baseline system overhead by up to 20% on idle systems.On a typical 16GB RAM machine, this effectively reclaims roughly 1GB of memory that was previously tied up by background OS tasks, leaving more breathing room for demanding user applications and browser tabs.
Microsoft updated the kernel-level memory management with an improved Predictive Paging algorithm. This better anticipates which data your active apps will need, pre-fetching it into the system cache more intelligently. Additionally, the Windows Memory Compressor has been refined to work side-by-side with the WinUI 3 framework, prioritizing the compression of background assets so your physical hardware RAM remains free for high-priority tasks like gaming or creative software.
Fewer “Out of Memory” Crashes: Particularly noticeable on budget or enterprise devices constrained to 8GB of RAM.
Smoother Multitasking: Better background resource handling means less micro-stuttering and snappier performance when swapping between heavy apps.
Component-Specific Optimization: Specific areas, such as the Widgets board, have also received targeted updates in recent preview and beta builds to drastically quiet down their background RAM usage.
Looks like I’m back to 45% ram use. Go figure! Windows works in mysterious ways …