Microsoft admitted that certain native Windows 11 applications use an excessive amount of RAM, which compromises the overall computer performance, and announced plans to implement fixes.
Identification of Consumption Problem
Some users may have noticed slowness in native operating system tools. Microsoft itself confirmed that system features consume a lot of memory. For example, when opening the Weather app and checking the Task Manager, it can be observed that it consumes between 600 MB and 900 MB of RAM, which seems high for a weather forecasting tool.
Although the Weather app has many graphical elements that might justify some of this usage, the core problem in Windows 11 lies in the insidious memory consumption by native resources. This consumption is not always evident, manifesting only under specific conditions, such as when a particular software component is activated.
Focus on WinUI Optimization
According to Windows Latest, the failure is not primarily in the applications themselves, but rather in the system structures they employ and which were not designed to optimize hardware resource usage. Microsoft is focusing on improving this aspect, directing its efforts toward WinUI, the library responsible for the graphical interface used in the development of modern Windows features and applications.
The purpose of this WinUI update is twofold: to reduce RAM consumption and, simultaneously, increase performance and reliability. This improvement in the library tends to indirectly optimize all applications built upon it.
Next Steps and Examples
As of now, no timeline has been disclosed for the implementation of the enhanced WinUI, as Microsoft has kept the topic confidential. However, the completion of this work should not take long, given that the company has future projects that directly depend on this update. One of these examples is a new Start Menu, which, although it may seem similar to the current one, will have better performance and require less RAM, with WinUI being fundamental to this.
Additionally, Microsoft is working on replacing legacy Windows 11 elements, those reminiscent of Windows 95, with contemporary versions, which are being developed based on WinUI. It is expected that these efforts will result in the desired effect and within the timeframe, given that optimizing RAM consumption is a constant necessity in any software, being even more crucial in the current context of memory limitations.
