Is High RAM Usage on Idle Normal?

Discussion
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It’s normal. Windows uses RAM to speed up launching applications when nothing else is running.

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This is why upgrading to 32GB of RAM is a good idea. Just running Discord, a few browser tabs, and a game can use up all 16GB.

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Try uninstalling any bloatware that came with your laptop. I managed to reduce my RAM usage from 7.8GB to 5.5GB.

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Cory said:
Try uninstalling any bloatware that came with your laptop. I managed to reduce my RAM usage from 7.8GB to 5.5GB.

How do you remove these apps? I’m new to Windows, coming from a Mac background.

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@Blair
Go to the Start menu, type ‘installed apps’, and from there, you can uninstall any apps you don’t need to free up RAM.

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Cody said:
@Blair
Go to the Start menu, type ‘installed apps’, and from there, you can uninstall any apps you don’t need to free up RAM.

Thanks for the tip!

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I’ve noticed similar RAM usage on my laptops as well. It seems to be just a Windows thing.

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Colby said:
I’ve noticed similar RAM usage on my laptops as well. It seems to be just a Windows thing.

Did that impact your laptop’s performance at all?

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Make sure to close your extra tabs when you’re done browsing. Just a friendly reminder!

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Shea said:
Make sure to close your extra tabs when you’re done browsing. Just a friendly reminder!

:flushed::rofl:

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People often overlook this, but a clean install of Windows 11 should only use about 30% of 16GB of RAM. Check your startup programs and background services like McAfee, and make sure you’ve rebooted recently to clear any memory leaks.

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@Vega
I’ve done all that—removed bloatware, deleted McAfee, and restricted startup apps. What else could be causing high RAM usage?

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Cody said:
@Vega
I’ve done all that—removed bloatware, deleted McAfee, and restricted startup apps. What else could be causing high RAM usage?

Check your Task Manager and see which processes are using the most RAM.

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Cody said:
@Vega
I’ve done all that—removed bloatware, deleted McAfee, and restricted startup apps. What else could be causing high RAM usage?

Sort the processes by memory usage in Task Manager or use the Resource Monitor to get detailed insights. My systems don’t go over 28% on a fresh boot, even with background apps like Steam.

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45% RAM usage at idle is actually quite normal. I’ve seen worse!