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Microsoft once tried to cut Windows 11 RAM usage, install size by 20%, now it’s trying again in 2026 (www.windowslatest.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 181 points 7 months ago (6 children)

Just tell your AI agents to reduce the RAM usage and install size by 20% and let them rip. How hard can it be?

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  • [–] 28 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    More like tell your users to only run services in the cloud and not to run anything on their own computers.

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    • [–] 84 points 7 months ago (16 children)

    All at a time where I think I’m actually going to switch to Linux.

    I just tried out an install on my laptop and boy does it work well even for gaming.

    Windows has, nothing I actually need any more?

    It feels really big to really leave Windows for good, but, I think it’s going to happen after a bit more testing of my Linux setup.

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  • [–] 54 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I told myself I'd give Win11 (using tools to uninstall all the bullshit/tracking) for 3-4 months before seriously considering linux. I made it 3 months, got tired of having to re-uninstall shit I don't want every update and just flat out wiped the install and installed CachyOS. It's been perfect, even new game releases like Death Stranding 2 worked out of the box, fuck windows.

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  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago

    This is why its been announced now. With all the tracking Microsoft has in W11, including being able to track usage to an email account for most, they will have a good idea who has binned windows and who hasn't.

    Its this volume of switching that has them worried enough to actually pretend to fix things. I say pretend as its fairly obvious what they need to remove to reduce the bloat on RAM but their business it tied to it now, like concrete over boots on a mafia snitch.

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  • [–] 13 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Oohh, Bazzite?

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    I have a back up SSD with windows on I swap out to play the very few games that still require it that I just can't give up. But I don't have the need to duel boot anymore. I just keep the SSD to scratch my itch

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    I’m curious what games do you use that still need windows?

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Games with intrusive anticheat like Battlefield 6 Rainbow Six, League of Legends ect. You need to check protondb website if games you play run on Linux before you make the jump

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Right now I have a console to play those games, but don't know what I'll do when the next "generation" comes out.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Next Gen will likely be very expensive due do very high RAM prices. IMO current consoles will run for at least few more years.

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    • [–] 81 points 7 months ago (32 children)

    Windows 11 is not based on a single unified UI framework. Instead, it uses a mix of legacy Win32 components, UWP elements, modern WinUI layers, and web-based technologies like WebView2 and React.

    I am reading this as MMC snap-ins and control panel. There is no other alternative to manage these settings outside of PowerShell.

    Also, what idiot decided that only one settings window is allowed open at one time? Sometimes I would like to be in Windows update, power settings, Ethernet settings, and printer settings all at once.

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  • [–] 46 points 7 months ago* (21 children)

    I hate how the settings app is taking over control panel entries to make them worse and show me the original control panel window after going down 3 levels because the stupid fucks can't design UI for shit.

    Thankfully, you can still get to a lot of them if you know the name of the control panel applet.

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Want to see the advanced settings for a network adapter?

    Good luck finding it, fucko

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Ncpa.cpl > right click > properties and go from there is my main method.

    Otherwise, Win+X > G (devmgmt.msc) and look at the network adapter in device manager

    Other than the win+x chord, that works on just about every version I have to touch

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Apparently there's a ton of CBT involved in doing anything in the new Settings app, so it makes sense to only bring over the things you absolutely have to and then send people to the old control panel for the rest.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (9 children)

    Like windows 2000 to XP or Vista to 7... 10 to 11

    The eternal enshitification...

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    Vista to 7

    enshitification

    Lol, lmao even

    7 was better than vista in just about every way.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    That's the thing... 7 is Vista. Just with a new UI.

    Windows 2000 is XP. XP just has a new interface. 7 and XP are for consumers. 2000 and Vista are more like server editions (even the pro versions.)

    Vista has Aero but also the classic server(windows NT/2000) UI. Even modern server versions have essentially the same classic control panels. And server versions don't have all the extra bullshit(7 wasn't so bad yet, but 10 and 11 are). That's why I prefer to run Windows server as my desktop.

    What made Vista/7 great were the under the hood(kernel) improvements, particularly to the threading model. They made safe handling non-negotiable. This retroactively fixed countless programs and improved overall system stability significantly.

    There's really no other major differences between Vista and 7 besides aesthetics(the shell.)

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    Right, but none of that is enshitification or contradicts that 7 was an improvement over vista in most every way. As you stated, there were numerous kernel improvements going to 7, as well as improvements on locking logic, memory access and (let's not ignore the most obvious) driver support. The two operating systems were very similar, but saying there are no major differences other than aesthetic is not accurate. There were less major differences than xp > vista or 7 > 8, but it was a bit more than just aesthetics.

    Also, fuck Server 2016. All my homies hate Server 2016....

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago*

    7 was a facelift to Vista. It changed the control panels back to the dipshit XP-like way. That's not an improvement.

    The kernel improvements landed in Vista. 7 inherited them. They "fixed" the driver support in Vista. 7 also inherited that.

    I'm a Windows developer. Well, more so was during the release of Vista and 7 and certainly prior. Much less these days. I loved Vista. Worked flawlessly. I've also used 7 extensively. They're (near)exactly the same OS as far as the kernel and driver and API models.

    Maybe as support for Vista ended and 7 got continued support. That's really the biggest difference, IMO.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

    Win98 good

    Windows ME bad

    WindowsXP good

    Vista bad

    Win7 good (maybe peak)

    Win8 bad

    Win10 OK?

    Win11 bad

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  • [–] 21 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Also, what idiot decided that only one settings window is allowed open at one time?

    Microsoft engineers were worried that people missed the joys of MS-DOS and having only one application running at once. Next up, will be the return of base memory versus expanded memory versus extended memory. This ends when they devolve Windows to prove Bill Gates right that 640kB should be enough memory for anyone.

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago* (3 children)

    They decided it because there are so many duplicate Settings pages controlling the same thing.

    There are over 12 different places to change USB power save settings

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    • [–] 59 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    If it worked out, the idle Windows 11 RAM usage would’ve been around 4.8GB

    That's still a lot

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  • [–] 48 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Considering 8GB systems are back in vogue, that's a fuckload. More than half your ram just going to the computer existing.

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  • [–] 35 points 7 months ago*

    Well no, its doing more than just existing, its sending screen shots of your screen to Microsoft, displaying ads, updating advertising ID to allow them to track you across the web, uploading your typing history It all helps shareholders of microslop.

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    • [–] 50 points 7 months ago (15 children)

    If it worked out, the idle Windows 11 RAM usage would’ve been around 4.8GB

    Me on beefy Linux distro with a metric ton of garbage installed: 3.2GB

    Good luck vibe coding memory efficiency...

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  • [–] 22 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    Copilot. Make no mistakes and be efficient with memory usage.

    Hahahahahah

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  • [–] 13 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    You no want 6GB LLM running as a system service???

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Our Microslop overlords have said that I do, so I guess I do? I don't know. Hand on. I'm asking Copi--- I mean... I'm thinking...

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (8 children)

    is it even possible to vibe code efficient memory use properly?

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    Possible? Yes. Likely? No.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    ok. is it even remotely more cost-effective than doing the old-fashioned optimizing?

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    Probably not but maybe. It's a gamble that I'm guessing most MBAs would love to make!

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    i guess a better way is just make something less RAM heavy from the get go.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Good luck with that if it's being vibe coded.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    i don't think vibe coding will be that sophisticated any time soon.

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    • [–] 112 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Amateurs. On my personal pc, windows RAM usage is exactly 0.

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    • [–] 25 points 7 months ago (9 children)

    Ironically the install ISO actually went up in size from roughly 5.5GB to 7.5GB in the recent months.

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  • [–] 17 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    All that tracking software is bloated.

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  • [–] 8 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    Agreed but also have you tried to write a feature with LLMs? It will occasionally just add extra files that do the same thing as one library you already have.

    You can even catch it and it will be like oh your right then continue without deleting, so next prompt it decides to use its own library again.

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    The trick is to tell it what to do and how to do it, not just talk to it like it knows what it’s doing.

    People get upset when it can’t complete features based on high level descriptions. They were told it could, after all. “Build be a website that…” However, that will always lead to disaster.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    So you go from a legit Developer using their skills refining them day by day to a middle manager who's just checking the work of the AI workers.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    This is the direction of things. On one hand, I’m not a full time developer anymore—after 23 years in the industry. On the other hand, I complete projects 100x faster and have more time for my cat.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    But you as someone with the experience can spot the issues and problems when using the tool. That's because of years of experience, all these newbies are going to be fucked without that experience.

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago

    Agreed 100%. There is going to be a problem in the future where people like me are, well, dead. And junior developers never got the hands on experience to learn what I (should) know after so many years.

    But, for now, I have to eat. And I no longer care to give my mental health to a project I am not getting an equal share of. So, I am very much enjoying what I can get done.

    Humorously, even with near-unlimited power at my fingertips, I still struggle to find any personal projects worth doing. I’ve made a few arcade style phone games and some desktop apps for myself, which are all very nice. But AI cannot write a compelling game story, or design consistent artwork without significant head banging. Sure it can get the ball rolling, but there is always something hollow about it.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    Even then, it's going to make some batshit decisions on stuff you don't specify and probably screw up some that you did, and much of it will cause subtle issues.

    Remember that even with all the shit they add on to it, it's still based on a text predictor, not some kind of problem solving or programming engine.

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    • [–] 22 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    I wish windows went down a different path. Instead they decided to double down on ads and ai, because shareholders are more important than the actual customers

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    Suckers keep using it, so what incentive is there for them to deslopify?

    I'd personally rather use a Chromebook than Windows.

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    The thing is that there are real measurements of the market share of windows dropping. The only reason why adoption of w11 overtook w10 user size is because they made w10 end of life (although there are still ways around)

    Unfortunately, some business idiot mathed up that losing users is fine as long as the others get forced onto w11

    Windows could have done so much differently. More seamless integration with xbox and cross platform for gaming. Different, easily swappable profiles (windows) for different tasks (basically overhauling desktops, like for art, dev work, etc). Optimizing microsofts enterprise software suite without all the bloat. Not deprecating the idea of android support.

    But like all big tech companies, they only see money now

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    Windows could have done so much differently. More seamless integration with xbox and cross platform for gaming. Different, easily swappable profiles (windows) for different tasks (basically overhauling desktops, like for art, dev work, etc). Optimizing microsofts enterprise software suite without all the bloat. Not deprecating the idea of android support.

    But like all big tech companies, they only see money now

    People like to hate on Ballmer but all of these ideas came out during his time. Since Satya replaced him, Windows has just been getting worse and worse and the focus on their products have been lost to the cloud and AI. Sure the stock price rose but there's nothing exciting about Microslop anymore.

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    • [–] 16 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Maybe they should make a really new windows version and not a mix from 7,8,10 patched together.. with all the problems carried + AI coding making things worse.

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    • [–] 25 points 7 months ago

    Maybe they should try not writing OS code in react. Perhaps they should consider dedicating as many resources to cleaning up code as they do to adding “features.”

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    [–] 11 points 7 months ago

    Obvious course of events considering how the commodity PC market is essentially cut off from RAM supply for an indeterminate number of years with no respite in sight. Memory isn't cheap anymore, and if they kept making Windows 11 as they used to it won't be long before PCs in the market are simply left unable to run the OS at all.

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