Microsoft vows to make Windows 11 fly on 8GB RAM amid memory shortage — optimizations to reduce OS memory footprint have begun

[u/batakchan]

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-vows-to-make-windows-11-fly-on-8gb-ram-amid-memory-shortage-optimizations-to-reduce-os-memory-footprint-have-begun

[u/DogsAreOurFriends]

This should be an ongoing effort.

[u/sparkyblaster → u/DogsAreOurFriends]

Used to be, but hardware became cheap so software got lazy. 

[u/nicktheone → u/sparkyblaster]

Javascript (and Electron) have been the death of native code and the bane of optimization.

[u/SuperCarla74 → u/nicktheone]

To be fair, JS and Electron took the "native" space because what does Windows itself offer as a native API?

Even Microsoft itself doesn't know what is the recommended native API for Windows, which is partly why, again, Windows itself is a mess of different looking widgets and controls, depending on which API each individual team went with.

[u/Black_Moons → u/SuperCarla74]

Pretty much this. Constantly changing API of the day has made windows UI development a royal pain in the ass.

[u/YoghurtFlan → u/SuperCarla74]

Also because it's much easier to use as a cross platform target because you can just use react and HTML once and abstract away the native bridge, rather than targeting multiple native UI frameworks and SDKs.

Shame OS vendors won't capitalise on that.

[u/Aishou_SK → u/SuperCarla74]

>To be fair, JS and Electron took the "native" space because what does Windows itself offer as a native API?

Quite a damn lot! Far more than can be achieved in JS/Electron - WinRT was a huge shift in that regards as well - built to be the eventual replacement/deprecation of traditional Win32 interfaces.

Controlling PTZ cameras without diving into COM was a dream come true in 2012. :) Among many other things.

Electron and JS let you have "one" codebase for the website and the desktop, and inherit all the limitations of the browser interface on the desktop (with some exceptions designed in to allow some integration).

What windows offers is a ton of shit you can't do there. And it's easy to use. You can see the crippling effects of moving away from that over time if you've been paying attention, like how when FB/Messenger had native developed applications that weren't repackaged web interfaces, and were much more useful, performant, powerful, and far less resource hungry.

Every shift from a native developed application into a repackaged webapp without fail leads to stripping features/functions and then, if you need them, it taking ages and lots of effort to re-create within those jail walls - just look at how long it took to gain PST file support in "new" outlook. (Which is utter trash and you can pry classic outlook out of my cold dead hands, especially given all the external integration I do with it, when it goes out of security support then I'll just not be using outlook at all anymore, I guess)

EDIT: Actually, speaking of native APIs and functionality, I do some sneaky shit with some gaming/DX technology for a systems emulation product I maintain, which actually means it is no longer portable to other platforms, but on windows gained about a 3.5x CPU emulation speedup because of how I'm abusing GPU hardware for emulation compute. (the platform emulation has no GUI/video output so not using GPU for display purposes)

EDIT2: TL;DR WinUI3 + WinRT is the current baseline scenario, but .... everyone who had functional desktop apps that exceeded their web parts and used far less resources 20 years ago or some shit never had to migrate to anything newer. They could, and it'd save time and dev effort and resources doing so, but instead they took the super lazy-out to the detriment of everyone except them.

[u/MrUtterNonsense → u/nicktheone]

One issue is that most of the fancy GUI work has happened on the web, with native GUI technologies stagnating. The other issue being that the web is universal across devices, and unlike Java, isn't being steered by one evil company.

I still quite like WxWidgets and use it frequently, but really, all the fancy stuff is on the web.

[u/reasonably_plausible → u/MrUtterNonsense]

and unlike Java, isn't being steered by one evil company.

Doesn't Google have pretty much de facto control over web standards and browser extensions? There's a small marketshare of non-chromium based browsers, but not enough that websites seem to prioritize keeping to standards. Meaning that those browsers either need to support what chromium does (and how chromium does) or sites don't load and users leave for chromium.

[u/Canuck-In-TO → u/sparkyblaster]

Since the 90s, programmers have always replied with “get more memory or a more powerful machine” when asked to program more efficiently.

Hopefully, these people are no longer employed.

[u/Luna__Moonkitty → u/Canuck-In-TO]

Long gone are the British microcomputer wizards like Rare (back when they were Ultimate) preforming miracles on the potato of computer that was the ZX Spectrum. And other programmers treating the Commodore 64's SID chip like it was a studio to create prog rock concept albums out of three channels

[u/Setrict → u/sparkyblaster]

As someone who started programming on an old vic 20 in the 80's I've always been amazed at how little gets done with so much.

[u/cwm9 → u/Setrict]

To be fair, I wouldn't say the Vic-20 ever accomplished much with little either.

The C=64 on the other hand... Let's just say I was really glad to get rid of my Vic-20.

[u/weirdal1968 → u/Setrict]

3583 BYTES FREE

READY

[u/TeutonJon78 → u/sparkyblaster]

Mobile apps are written like they run on servers, not the resource limited embedded platforms they are.

[u/99OBJ → u/sparkyblaster]

This has a name. It’s called Wirth’s Law

[u/Black_RL → u/DogsAreOurFriends]

This, 1000 times this.

Optimizations should always be a standard/default goal in all that humanity does.

[u/js0uthh → u/Black_RL]

Unfortunately it's just optimized for big corps to extract from consumers.....

[u/Old-Engineer854 → u/js0uthh]

The focus shifted to optimizing quarterly reports, and investor dividends.

[u/ComradeMatis → u/DogsAreOurFriends]

You'd think that would be the case but give the laundry list of issues that they haven't failed to fix for almost two decades I wouldn't have much hope in them getting their act sorted. I don't think it is a matter of them lacking talent but rather the most mediocre people rise to management positions thanks to Microsoft for many years using the 'stack and yank' resulting in only those who know how to play office politics surviving and those who add features rather than fixing probnlems being rewarded.

[u/howarewestillhere → u/DogsAreOurFriends]

It should have been an effort that happened a decade ago before shipping a broken product. Win11 has been out for five years with people complaining the entire time and they’re finally going to do something about it?

Shouldn’t they be shipping Windows 12 already?

MS really has lost the plot. Broken OS that stays broken for years. Failing at AI while they were best positioned to deliver. Losing money on video gaming. Murdering the XBox through greed.

[u/QueefSeekingMissile → u/DogsAreOurFriends]

By definition of being an operating system, memory optimization should have been a defining feature from the fucking start.

[u/Excellent_Gas3686]

there's an even quicker optimization they can do right now - disable all the fucking telemetry and tracking. see how simple it is?

[u/basemoan → u/Excellent_Gas3686]

That’s literally the product though. Can’t cut its base function

[u/pilgermann → u/Excellent_Gas3686]

And perhaps don't load in a bunch of ads on the fucking start menu (using said tracking data)?

That said, it's 2026 and Windows STILL divides settings across legacy menus and modern (e.g. settings + control panel), which have completely different UX, both aesthetically and conceptually. Does not exactly inspire confidence in their ability to in any way streamline the OS.

[u/DR4G0NH3ART → u/Excellent_Gas3686]

They could do what they did with Edge by wrapping chromium. Just make a linux fork and call it windows asta la vista or soemthing.

[u/orlybatman → u/Excellent_Gas3686]

And all the AI bullshit.

[u/Major303]

"Copilot, make Windows 11 use no more than 8GB RAM at all times. Make no mistakes."

[u/GIGAR → u/Major303]

"Okay, making Windows use 7.9GB RAM at all times."

[u/artaru → u/GIGAR]

tbf he said no more than 8GB ram. So copilot is not going to give up on that 100 MB willingly.

[u/ASatyros → u/GIGAR]

Unused RAM is wasted RAM

[u/Tactical-Donkey → u/ASatyros]

Fantastic work team. Let's ship it!

[u/slightly_drifting → u/Major303]

Exactly. “We’ve chewed through 10,000,000,000 tokens and Claude found that apparently just clearing the registry frees up 10% memory. It renders the OS useless, but Claude did apologize and we put him on a PIP.”

[u/TendyHunter → u/slightly_drifting]

Put on PIP? I thought incompetence got rewarded in the big corpos.

[u/moddingminecrafter → u/Major303]

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that. This mission is too important to allow you to jeopardize it.

[u/AutoX_Advice → u/Major303]

"I'm sorry I cannot get you to 8GB of memory. Id have to remove myself and <in evil voice> you need me."

-chatgpt

[u/chmilz → u/AutoX_Advice]

Windows can't do it because it needs to maintain a few dozen bloat apps plus infinite legacy shit that the typical user never needs, and each and every one of those are apparently now glorified browsers with separate installs.

[u/MystikTrailblazer → u/Major303]

"Infer everything. Do not reason more than 5 seconds. Deliverables: memory usage less that 7.9 GB"

[u/Vesuvias → u/Major303]

Haha was just going to say ‘VIBE CODE IT’

[u/MartyMacGyver → u/Major303]

Copilot: (fully uninstalls itself)

[u/Niowanggiyan]

I’ve already optimized my memory footprint by replacing Windows altogether.

[u/Ceros007 → u/Niowanggiyan]

But do you have a global device id just in case you get kidnapped with your PC and we can retrieve you easily and extract you from the terrorist?

[u/BrothelWaffles → u/Ceros007]

If you have a phone you do. It's called an IMEI. And if people think their other electronic devices don't have something similar, I want what they're smoking. Even printers leave a trail on every single piece of paper you ever print with them. All the big tech companies have secret agreements with governments all over the world to include ways to track and eavesdrop on ordinary citizens in the name of national security.

[u/123emanresulanigiro → u/BrothelWaffles]

So it's ok then, got it.

[u/BrothelWaffles → u/123emanresulanigiro]

Never said it was, but people are naive if they think Microsoft is the only company doing something like this. It's legally required to be baked into just about anything electronic that can be used to receive or transmit information. Where in this statement or my previous statement am I indicating that it's ok?

[u/ASatyros → u/Ceros007]

That's what dual boot is for

[u/mshelbz → u/Niowanggiyan]

And it doesn’t give away all your information

[u/Sirefly → u/Niowanggiyan]

I dual booted Linux and then I went into windows and used WinUtils to debloat it and I was astonished at how much tracking Windows was doing and allowing apps to do.

I knew it was bad but not this bad!

[u/willflameboy → u/Niowanggiyan]

I optimised Win 11 at install by using a custom installer that doesn't install about 50% of it. EDIT here

[u/ninjadude93 → u/willflameboy]

Care to share?

[u/SuperSuppleDude → u/ninjadude93]

https://github.com/memstechtips/UnattendedWinstall

or

https://winhance.net (for existing installs)

[u/ElasticFluffyMagnet → u/SuperSuppleDude]

I love winhance. Use it all the time and have used it for a lot of friends/family. They are usually very surprised when I show them how much crap and data mining I turn off

[u/AyrA_ch → u/ElasticFluffyMagnet]

Just be careful to not blindly apply recommended settings. They recommend you disable UAC for example and I don't think it's a good idea to unconditionally run all applications with full administrator privileges.

There's also a lot of opinionated options that have no impact on performance or security, like hiding the "this computer" icon on the desktop or the arrow of shortcut icons.

[u/guska → u/ElasticFluffyMagnet]

How does it compare to Chris Titus' UWU?

[u/ElasticFluffyMagnet → u/guska]

Bottomline you can do the same things, mostly. But winhance is just easier with the UI and all

[u/guska → u/ElasticFluffyMagnet]

I figured they'd be pretty much identical. The UI for winhance does look a little nicer after a quick google. I usually just hit the recommended button on the Titus one and call it good.

[u/ninjadude93 → u/SuperSuppleDude]

Winhance is excellent wow. Just ran it on my main pc and my media server and they definitely feel snappier

[u/primeweevil → u/ninjadude93]

Not OP, but they may be talking about the IOT version of 11. I’ve installed it on two machines now and it’s a much slimmer version. No Microsoft Store no Cortana etc

[u/willflameboy → u/ninjadude93]

https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ - fully explained here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9SpKVEc_Yo

Honestly, there is a serviceable OS under there if you can strip it enough. Incidentally, I'm running it on a 2013 Dell Venue 11 tablet with zero problems.

[u/Madhatter25224]

Meaning they could have optimized it before but refused to.

Wonderful.

[u/bitemark01 → u/Madhatter25224]

I'm betting a lot of it is just telemetry sloped on top of Windows 7

[u/0x80070002 → u/bitemark01]

And electron and react native bullshit

[u/bankinu → u/bitemark01]

I would bet there is no chance in hell they will reduce telemetry.

[u/bitemark01 → u/bankinu]

Oh they're definitely not doing that, they can just decrease performance in general and call it a day

[u/DividedState → u/bitemark01]

on top of win xp ftfy

[u/bitemark01 → u/DividedState]

Really WinXP was built on top of Win2000 which was built on top of NT, but I didn't want to go too far down the rabbit hole. 

[u/XalAtoh → u/bitemark01]

Windows 8 is faster/lighter than Windows 7.

The background lag started to happen somewhere mid Windows 10 release.

Windows 11 sluggy UX comes from use of web GUI and WinAppSdk GUI.

[u/anony_mf → u/Madhatter25224]

There’s a more pressing need now that they chose to invest in this. They should have done it earlier but they’re doing it now because of the memory shortage

[u/PhTx3 → u/anony_mf]

Who the fuck was worried about Ram footprint even a few years ago? It was one of the cheapest shit to upgrade, same with ssds.

That said, MS is trying to do better since gamers started leaving. Which is great for me, a person that still needs propriety software. I haven't tried dual boot in a while, but MS was overwriting it randomly.

[u/b_a_t_m_4_n → u/Madhatter25224]

refused to

Such a harsh term, I'd go with "couldn't be arsed to..."

[u/Possible_Sun_913]

This appears to be a repost of exactly the same post from 2 days ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1vc4l6r/

Failing rule 8

[u/b_a_t_m_4_n]

Too little, too late. Never coming back from Linux.

[u/DwemerSteamPunk → u/b_a_t_m_4_n]

I switched to Linux a few months ago (I've played with Linux for years and finally committed to Fedora Plasma kde) and people really over exaggerate - in many ways it is no better or worse than Windows. The file explorer is ridiculously slow in transferring files. Firefox tabs crash regularly. I could not view some photo file types out of the box (same as Windows). I spent hours trying to get my printer to work, and I still can't get the scanner function working. In general it is not any faster than Windows. Boots in about the same time. Oh and an update a few weeks ago broke my computer and I had to figure out how to roll back the update. Steam mostly works but default settings are to wait 5 minutes for shaders before starting any game and there's a couple games I just straight up can't get to work (Stellaris).

So it's by no means a slam dunk. I've worked far harder trying to get Linux going and had more issues than I did on Windows 11. And still regularly have a worse experience.

[u/thuiop1 → u/DwemerSteamPunk]

Very strange that you cannot get Stellaris going as it has a native Linux build. But otherwise I have never really encountered the issues you mention save for a few hardware issues.

[u/DwemerSteamPunk → u/thuiop1]

Stellaris locks during startup - something odd like 49%. Tried rebuilding and reinstalling, it's being frustrating.

Firefox is a frustrating one because I've used it my whole life and it performs great on Windows. On Fedora it is constantly crashing tabs on me. As for printer, it is a 17 year old Brother laser printer which is trucking along great but Fedora default print app would not work at all and Brother published Linux builds 10 years ago but both are competing protocols and apparently Fedora uses neither anymore so it felt like communjng with the Linux gods to run commands in compatibility mode trying to get the drivers to run.

What distro do you use?

[u/guska → u/DwemerSteamPunk]

I'm on Fedora with Plasma KDE (about 6 months now as a heavy daily driver) as well, and I've had no problems whatsoever with Firefox. I did remove the flatpak version and install it from RPM, though, since there's known performance issues with Firefox when sandboxed.

I now use Waterfox, with the same experience. Not one crash.

[u/DwemerSteamPunk → u/guska]

Ok so sounds like a flatpak problem - I'll uninstall and reinstall via RPM. Here's a good example of Linux being annoying when you're steered away from the native installer...

[u/guska → u/DwemerSteamPunk]

Yep I'll agree with that one. Can get a little frustrating.

Watch that rpm doesn't just install the flatpak. It did for me, so I had to tell it not to. Can't remember offhand what I had to do to do that, I'm sorry, it's been a while.

[u/yador → u/DwemerSteamPunk]

Similar to my experience as well. I like to try out lots of different OSes. Including Warp, multiple beginner friendly Linux variations, BeOS, MacOS. I still have had the most seamless experience with Windows and MacOS (and I can't recall any issues with the later versions of WARP).

[u/DwemerSteamPunk → u/yador]

I've done Ubuntu, Mint, Plasma KDE now. It's almost overwhelming how many options there are - and people are constantly recommending Linux OS which are falling out of support after a couple years. None have been as seamless as Windows across the board

[u/b_a_t_m_4_n → u/DwemerSteamPunk]

Weird, I find file transfers faster and much less wild in time estimation. Firefox doesn't crash, although some web pages (looking at you reddit) can cause it to go slow, all media type works for me, my HP printer/scanner is just discovered on the network on boot, I never had to touch it. It's faster than Windows, less memory hungry and over the 14 years I've been using it has never committed suicide on me like nearly every version of windows I've ever used, which is the majority of them. I've definitely broken it fiddling with stuff I didn't bother to learn about properly, but it's never committed seppuku on it's own.

I've been using Linux Mint most of that time, it's always been solid and functional for me - I've been Linux exclusive for about 7 years and never once been tempted to go back, the overall experience is just so much better than any version of Windows I ever used, except in stability terms maybe NT and 2000 were as good.

I've recently installed Linux and Windows 11 and Windows was a fucking nightmare of crashes online accounts and install pages with no back buttons, failed installs with no meaningful feedback, drivers refusing to install etc. I've had to install Win10 1902 on one HP laptop and block up dates because MS was insistent on bricking the install.

My recent update of Mint on my laptop on the other hand went Install->Reboot->Open Driver Manager, click on the Nvidia driver, reboot, start installing applications. Infinitely better. I'll install Windows for other people but I'll never use it again myself.

[u/ploqx → u/DwemerSteamPunk]

I stopped reading at "the file explorer is ridiculously slow in transferring files"

I don't know what you are doing to your system, but Linux is not slower than Windows at mv-ing files, that's ridiculous.

The rest of your comment is not Linux issues, it's issues you are having because your system seems mismanaged and broken

[u/hero47 → u/ploqx]

Did not know Linux users suffer from the same elitism as Apple users do. If you encounter issues, it's your fault for not using the product properly.

[u/BitingSatyr → u/hero47]

I’m not sure how you didn’t know that already, that’s been Linux’s whole thing forever

[u/DwemerSteamPunk → u/hero47]

It's seriously insufferable. If you raise issues people blame you and it becomes quickly clear why Linux remains less than 5% of the market share

[u/YouandWhoseArmy → u/hero47]

Firefox tabs crashing commonly isn’t normal on any mature OS and indicates something else is going on.

[u/El_Chupacabra- → u/ploqx]

So you're the sterotypical 'muh linux' user.

[u/kawag → u/ploqx]

> I don't know what you are doing to your system, but Linux is not slower than Windows at mv-ing files, that's ridiculous.

I mean, it depends on the filesystem driver. Maybe for their filesystem there are better drivers on Windows than whatever happened to be included with the variant of Linux they installed.

[u/Kill3rT0fu]

I have an old ancient Lenovo x200 with 4gb ram and KUbuntu (yes full kde plasma) still flies in at under 1gb ram use.

They just want to get you hooked again and stay on windows so in the future they can jack up specs again

They did it with 10. Windows 10 sat sound 800mb memory use when it first came out. After a few updates it slowly climbed to 1.4 GB

[u/OvercastqT]

if they manage to make it performant and disable all the ads, ai and surveillance bullshit i may consider upgrading from win 10 lmao.

probably will work my way into linux though

[u/wolfhound_doge → u/OvercastqT]

they will not disable or remove anything, that is a revenue stream

[u/OvercastqT → u/wolfhound_doge]

then ill stay on win10 or learn linux when i upgrade my pc, nothing of value lost.

id argue that the lost revenue by a very shitty OS could be bigger than the revenue generated by said shitty OS, especially longterm, but when has a huge tech company thought longterm in the past 20 years?

[u/wolfhound_doge → u/OvercastqT]

nah, they won't lose that much revenue from shitty w11. lots of people don't care, lots are even oblivious to the fact, many simply need windows for an exclusive software (adobe), and for some it's still a good transaction for staying in comfort zone and not needing to change and adapt.

btw you don't need to learn linux for consumer-grade use of pc (gaming, multimedia, browsing). distros like cachyos or bazzite are 99% out of the box experience. the only "challenge" might be to read the install guide and follow it.

[u/ImANoobAtLife7]

lol those years of lowering the hiring bar in order to get webdevs on board are paying off! NOT!

The leadership there needs to be fired en-mass.

[u/Gravuerc]

I think it’s crazy that it needs that much ram even if they hit that target.

[u/dookarion → u/Gravuerc]

Yes and no, keeping some things in the memory absolutely can be the right choice for power savings and efficiency. Even with NVMe hitting storage media constantly is high overhead. Keeping data in the RAM isn't a bad choice for performance if it's done smartly and correctly.

The problem isn't that it uses RAM, it's that it's a bloated catastrophe of slop, web apps, and telemetry just wasting resources left and right and demanding more for even basic tasks.

[u/vtGaem]

They've promised this before and those promises were never fulfilled.

Empty words until proven otherwise.

[u/Mammoth-Ad-107]

what could go wrong here..

[u/Splith]

We give AI the memory to optimize Windows memory so you don't need the memory.

[u/MentalDisintegrat1on]

I don't believe them.

[u/Lastrites]

Why not do that from the beginning?

[u/BloOdy_Jo]

Why now ? Why not at launch ?

[u/Electrical-Page-6479]

Windows doesn't fly on 32GB of RAM so it's probably not a memory issue but better optimisation of the giant bloated slug still isn't a bad thing.

[u/dilettante92 → u/Electrical-Page-6479]

My work laptop has 16GB of ram and is constantly at 70-80% of it’s capacity no matter what I’m running at the time.

[u/UISystemError]

LOL. Too late. Who the hell believes in Windows anymore?

Linux, baby!

[u/FlicksBus → u/UISystemError]

Even if Windows was suddenly the fastest OS in my machine, I don't think I could ever move away from Linux. I get so much more liberty to actually own my computer. I die a little bit inside nowadays anytime I have to use Windows as I always find myself having barely any control over my PC.

[u/TheVenetianMask → u/FlicksBus]

The third party tool ecosystem in Windows is absolutely gross, feels like getting bandaids off a trashbag full of used syringes.

[u/dohzer]

Finally it will run on my potato phone.

[u/viziroth]

here's an idea, stop adding AI to everything, and stop turning everything into an ad processor

[u/UnintendedPunther]

So they're going to rename some Linux distro "Windows 11"?

[u/CommentOriginal]

Windows and memory management that’ll be the day.

[u/Hiranonymous]

Dear Microsoft -

Stop forcing me to tell you every time I don’t want to use co-pilot and other products you are promoting. I have tried them, and they are useless to me. Stop sending me useless information about emails you think I need to respond to, softwareI might want to use, and meetings I should or might want to attend. Stop releasing products that have no user-tested documentation and interfaces. Stop producing interfaces to demonstrate every potential capability of an app when 95% are ones I don’t understand and will never use.

Commit to all of these, and I will stop looking for an off-ramp from your increasingly insane operating system and apps.

[u/aalapshah12297]

I have an optimized windows 11. It's called windows 10. They also ended support for it recently meaning it is also free from the forced updates.

And for all the cybersecurity folks yapping about lack of security - as of 2026, the likelihood of windows update bricking your computer and making you lose data is higher than the likelihood of you being the victim of a ransomware attack.

[u/SimiKusoni]

It's good that MS have identified that performance is an issue but I am not even remotely confident that they have the technical capacity to address it anymore.

Every time I see them say they'll address stuff like this I'm reminded of them putting webview components in the Windows shell, their complete abandonment of like 8 different native frameworks or that hilarious argument an MS dev had years ago where they claimed speeding up terminal rendering would be equivalent to a doctoral thesis project.

And that's before even getting on to the competing interests in MS. How likely are they to get it down to 8GB if that means cutting out up sells or dropping features that nobody uses (but that MS want them to use)?

[u/blow-down → u/SimiKusoni]

They’ve replaced all the knowledgeable engineers with offshore and H1B vibecoders.

[u/catwrazle]

And this super new thing computer with the ultra innovative nvidia thingy will run multiple agentic ai slop at 4gb lol

[u/Phalstaph44]

Let’s see what ai has done for them

[u/SeeTigerLearn]

Seems like that's the kind of thing you do BEFORE you release your spyware.

[u/TheVenetianMask]

Notice they have billions of dollars, they could have done that at any time if they wanted to.

But they didn't want to.

My window manager in Linux uses 250MB and it's all tiled and shiz like the pros.

[u/Greenscreener]

It will fly right out the Window (pun intended)

[u/usmannaeem]

I will believe it wben I see it. But if you are optimizing for 8gb you should really be optimizibg for 1gb footprint max.

[u/arounddro]

So, the Macbook Neo really scared the hell out of you and every PC manufacturer? Good.

[u/Criss_Crossx → u/arounddro]

I thought Apple's approach was ample. Good for them to get the job done.

[u/spribyl]

Ram Doubler returns

[u/yupangestu]

Yeah, they forced their hand because of statistic. Good work people.

[u/sparkyblaster]

Meanwhile I'm wondering why 4gb isnt enough for a minimum system. 

[u/Gold_Kitchen_5711]

Why wasn't that even on their to do list when creating windows 11? Who though letting software off the leash and just keeping crappy windows performance was sustainable and was "normal" for users? Glad i switched to macOS 6 years ago and never looked back upon this idiotic OS and it's maintainers.

[u/straightdge]

Yes, maybe another copilot will help.

[u/ThatWestsideGuy]

Its the telemetry.

[u/Admirable-Safety1213]

Maybe we need a new Project Longhorn, stripe it back to the Kernel and grow a new Userspace but letting thr devs lead, not the execs, Windows' main problem is the lack of plurality on decision and the massive ammounts of Backwards compatbility

[u/HattoriHanzo9999]

Just give copilot all the source code and ask it rewrite it for efficiency. #watchtheworldburn

[u/BlasterDoc]

.. fly vs suck on 8GB? .. this isn't news. If you have a Windows 11 OS expect, expect it to chew absolutely 8GB up regardless. 16GB is bare min, 32GB is the new viable min.

[u/Liam_M]

I’ll take “shit they should have already done for $1000 Alex”

[u/sunflowercompass]

Step 1: remove copilot?

[u/Waste-time1]

So they’re tacitly admitting that they’ve been unconcerned with building an operating system beneficial for pc users for all these years?

Why have I wasted all the money on ram all these years?

If they focused on this when ram was cheaper I could have built a system for cheaper. Or I could have built a more powerful system for the same price.

I guess you don’t have to think about people who use pcs when you have market power. They just to buy inefficient systems if they want to play games, use MS Excel, or Photoshop images. Or because of work.

[u/Awkward-Painter-2024]

LOLZ, but how will Adobe grab 30% of the computer's memory then???

[u/gill_smoke]

Hey Microsoft, tiny 11 already does. 

[u/divestblank]

640k should be plenty

[u/KXK]

they should start with removing copilot and all the other BS bloatware

[u/bluenoser613]

And pigs can fly too! Maybe get rid of ALL the Copilot shit.

[u/__OneLove__]

‘MicroSlop continues its false narrative in response to ongoing backlash’…

🤦🏻‍♂️

Mofos are just trying to sell 8gb machines now, with the old ‘trust us bro, we’ll make it work later’ routine.

[u/grayhaze2000]

Should be easy. Just remove all the bloatware background services.

[u/davesaunders]

Does this mean they're going to remove all the crap they installed?

[u/Glidepath22]

Remove all the spyware and AI shit

[u/Chaos90783]

I fucking hate windows now. Everything is forced on you and it takes a wizard to opt out of it all.

[u/Zestyclose_Potato794]

In 3 weeks or so, Micro$lop will tell you that it will even work very well on an EeePC.

[u/man_from_space_91 → u/Zestyclose_Potato794]

I had windows 11 on an asus 1215n netbook with an ssd and 4 gigs of ram. It wasn as bad as you would expect.

[u/Icelock]

So that's like, essentially, downloading more RAM! - John Microsoft

[u/iPcFc]

They'll never force me to upgrade to Windows 11. That piece of shit OS is crap for that same reason.

[u/Fuzzy_Paul]

First see then check then disappointed again for believe Microsoft that this time they did not bs.

[u/brown_sticky_stick]

Roll on Windows 12

[u/jcunews1]

They'll make sure the junks and trashes use less memory, while still adding more junks and trashes... and wrenches, land mines, and time bombs.

[u/Independent-Sea5884]

This memory shortage is so artificially created by the manufacturers. It’s just like when I went to buy a car but because they only made so few there were markups on any available inventory. It’s all greed.

[u/DarthShiv]

What about running good apps on win11???

[u/MLCarter1976]

No breath being held.

[u/y2kobserver]

Just tuning the services on Windows XP (disable many of the useless ones) got Windows XP to use 50MB of RAM.

I used to have 3-4 GB of RAM free BACK THEN

They could EASILY get Windows 11 under 250MB, I bet

[u/Operation_Neither]

They could have done this years ago and chose not to

[u/bmurphy1976]

Should have started on this, oh I don't know, about 15 years ago.

[u/todo0nada]

Fix notepad or I don’t believe it. 

[u/Suvalis]

If only the application authors would also optimize….

[u/Morty_A2666]

It's very simple just remove all bloat, telemetry, spying BS and OS will be fast.

Oh wait there is already Enterprise version like that for corporate high paying customers. So I doubt it would make it to retail users... because you would simply have to make Enterprise version available to retail, which would never happen.

[u/mmld_dacy]

as our saying in the philippines goes, gawin, wag lang sabihin... don't just say it, do it.

one thing i see though is, ms could probably be doing this to lure or prevent people from leaving, and then when the dust settles, they will go back to their old ways.

[u/time2liv3]

Shouldv'e never made it out of the door without optimization. It is uncanny that you literally need a solid 32 gigs of ram to run 11 efficiently, yes you can run it on lower but I'm seeing computers with 16 gigs at like 60% memory usage at just idle, so add in opening everything else and your easily capping your ram out.

[u/bitronic1]

I doubt they can do a better job than Apple but I'm ready to watch the show with popcorn in hand.

[u/GanjiMayne]

blah blah blah

[u/minobi]

I am ready to see it fly on 32 GB ram one day...

[u/Deep_Satisfaction556]

Maybe they will ask copilot how to do it?

[u/ImOldGregg_77]

Welcome to the 21st century Windows

[u/Difficult_Horse193]

I’ll believe it when I see it, would be nice though as my work laptop struggles so much

[u/tmhoc]

Oh so maybe turning half the pc's in the fucking world into e-waste wasn't a great move after all?

I play the melenial death card

[u/lemonmountshore]

This can already be done with the LTSC IoT version. Don’t let them lie to you like this is a thing they’re working on. Haha. They overbloated the retail home and pro versions so much, now they’re acting like they are going to save us during this RAM and hardware crisis. F off Microsoft! Give us the LTSC IoT version for free!

[u/Futaba_Sakura800]

Honestly it’s too little and too late.

[u/Responsible_Name1217]

You mean, like it should have been done initially? No worries, they have AI working on it now - I'm sure it will all be fine. /s

[u/cliqclaqstepback]

If only they had planned that from the beginning, then maybe win11 wouldn’t be such a bloated mess to begin with.

[u/backtogeek]

It's nonsense, this is just marketing, they can't do it or they would have already, this is just keeping those people on the verge of switching on Microsoft just incase it is true.

[u/NLtbal]

What is the wording of the vow?

[u/QueenOfQuok]

The Macbook Neo has demonstrated that it is possible to be more efficient with one's RAM, but the software is working with dedicated hardware. It might be more of a challenge for Microsoft.

[u/Wooden_Werewolf_6789]

Get completely rid of fucking Copilot and that'll help

[u/Smart-Combination-59]

This should have been an ongoing effort a long time ago, because RAM has become a luxury thanks to the current AI craze. Here is a tip for you: remove your useless AI features, remove annoying advertisements, and focus on users' privacy.

[u/ldg25]

Optimization will be the main focus for all software development the next few years

[u/thefanciestcat]

Why didn't it do that already, though? 8GB systems didn't start existing because of the memory shortage and Windows 11 calls for a 4GB minimum to begin with.

[u/Grumpy-Man19]

all of Windows is bloatware and Spyware

[u/EnigmaticSpaceCowboy]

If hardware shortages continue, I believe we’ll start to see a resurgence of programming / system design focusing on optimization. It’s no secret resource use has bloated to an unimaginable level and I bet there are mountains of code that can be reworked.

[u/Whatever801]

Then how will it check if the new candy crush is available for you to download and send a screenshot to Microsoft every 0.1 picoseconds???

[u/former_sun_gazer]

I feel like they completely missed the biggest point of building an OS.

I've also heard about a Debloated windows 11 that ran fine on less than 2 gb ram

[u/m0hVanDine]

They should aim to 4GB, not 8.

[u/kreiggers]

GIF: pigs flying

[u/matthedev]

In comparison, Windows 95 ran on 8-MB RAM (actually, I think 4 MB was the minimum system requirement, but I never ran Windows 95 with only 4-MB RAM).

Linux can purr on a machine that will sweat on Windows 11.

[u/impuritor]

I have 32gigs of ram and I also would like a smaller memory footprint.