With the latest Windows Insider Preview for the Dev and Beta channel (build 26220.7523), Microsoft is working on the new agent system for Windows 11 in particular. But optimizations in the File Explorer are also interesting. Microsoft wants to reduce the need for RAM.
Windows Latest refers to this aspect. According to Microsoft, the performance of the search in File Explorer is reduced by Microsoft preventing double indexing of data. This should lead to faster searches as well as lower memory consumption.
The fact that Microsoft wants to start with the basic performance of Windows 11 is part of the strategy for the coming year. For example, gaming performance should increase. Measures such as File Explorer optimization show what you are planning. However, it may take some time for changes from the Windows Insider Program to make it into the regular Windows versions.
Webapps with high RAM requirements
In times of horrendously rising RAM prices, such optimizations sound promising. The only catch is: Microsoft consistently does not follow through with these. While you are working on purifying the operating system, the RAM consumption of everyday apps is increasing.
One of the reasons is the trend towards web apps, which Microsoft itself is also driving forward. These are then not native Windows apps, instead they use a web framework such as Chromium or WebView2. Analyses by Windows Latest show that Discord, for example, is one of the most RAM-hungry apps. The communication tool uses the Electron framework and, according to the test, usually takes up about 1 GB of RAM. Depending on the type of use, however, this can increase to up to 4 GB. However, Discord has already announced that they want to work on the performance.
The demand for resources at Microsoft Teams, which is now based on WebView2, is also high. Even in idle mode, it requires around 1 GB of RAM.
Meta has recently switched to WhatsApp, the messenger now also uses a web framework under Windows 11. The consequence is also a higher RAM requirement, which according to the test of Windows Latest is also over 1 GB of RAM when the app is just running in the background. With the old app it was still about 200 MB.
Especially computers and laptops, with only 8 GB of RAM, are increasingly struggling with the high RAM demand on the part of Windows and the web apps. For example, an editor’s convertible takes more and more time when photos or folders are renamed, and Windows is also running more and more slowly.
