Windows 11 gets up to 20% snappier, and Microsoft aims its memory fix at 8GB PCs

Windows 11 can now hold up to 2GB more of whatever you are working on in memory instead of pushing it out to the much slower storage drive, Microsoft says, and on PCs with 8GB of RAM or less it no longer loads Widgets until you open the panel, which hands more than 200MB back to your apps. The company puts the overall result at up to 20% better responsiveness in Start, Search, File Explorer, Settings, Snipping Tool and right-click menus. For anyone on a budget laptop that stutters once a dozen browser tabs are open, this goes straight at the problem.

When RAM fills up, Windows moves less-used data to the SSD, a step called paging, and pulls it back when you return to that tab or document. Even a fast SSD is far slower than RAM, so paging shows up as the short freeze when you switch windows. On an 8GB machine, 2GB is a quarter of all installed memory. Navjot Virk, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows experiences, wrote that the work “can make an especially meaningful difference on PCs with 8GB of memory.”

Microsoft had already admitted the problem. By the company’s own past figures, cited by Windows Latest, an 8GB PC running Windows 11 sat close to 6GB used before the user opened a single app. Windows Latest traces much of that overhead to WebView2, the Chromium-based engine behind parts of Widgets, Settings, Start and Search, where each instance behaves like a hidden browser tab. Pavan Davuluri, president of Windows and Devices, had promised “memory optimization for 8GB and above” and named the memory allocator, WinUI 3 and WebView2 as targets.

The timing is about money as much as engineering. Memory makers have moved production toward high-bandwidth chips for AI data centers, and Google, explaining its own work to make Android need less RAM, cited Morgan Stanley figures of about $2.80 per gigabyte a year earlier against roughly $12 now, as The Next Web noted. That pushes PC makers back toward 8GB configurations while Apple sells a $599 MacBook Neo that runs smoothly on 8GB because macOS is tuned for it. Microsoft’s own Surface range includes a $1,299 laptop with 8GB, according to Windows Latest.

The update also carries smaller changes that reach beyond 8GB machines. The taskbar can finally sit at the top or on either side of the screen, Windows Hello face and fingerprint sign-in is quicker, Windows Update coordinates installs to cut restarts, and AirPods pair up to 15 seconds faster. A redesigned Search, for now limited to Windows Insiders, can switch on settings such as dark mode straight from the results.

The numbers deserve caution. Microsoft’s 20% figure compares response times for Search, Start, right-click menus, Settings, Snipping Tool and File Explorer between build 26300.9550 and the older 26200.7628, and none of those is a memory test, as The Next Web pointed out. The 8GB memory claims come with no measurement at all, only a footnote saying they rest on improvements in the newer build. The one published hands-on check, a Windows Latest test earlier this month, found a 16GB laptop using about 2GB less memory and an 8GB PC unchanged at 96% usage. That test may not include the newest work, but it is the only independent data so far, and Microsoft itself says actual performance varies by device.

None of this reaches every PC at once. Microsoft says the improvements are beginning to roll out broadly, with timing that varies by device and region, but the build it measured belongs to its Insider preview program. Windows Insiders get the changes first, with wider availability expected later this year, according to Digital Citizen. Microsoft has not named any country excluded from the memory changes, which apply to Windows 11 itself rather than to specific hardware. One part of the announcement is limited to the United States: from November 2 through December 31, buyers of eligible Windows 11 PCs at participating US retailers can claim 25 Xbox PC games, including Skyrim Special Edition and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, at no extra cost.

Microsoft announced the changes on October 15. Davuluri’s memory work runs through the end of 2026, delivered in steps rather than in one update, and the new Windows Search is due to reach all users later this year. Until someone tests the newer build on an 8GB laptop, the promise for those machines rests on a footnote.

Tags: microsoft, Windows 11, RAM, Pavan Davuluri, WebView2, Navjot Virk

Windows 11 gets up to 20% snappier, and Microsoft aims its memory fix at 8GB PCs

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