Technology Miraj Islam October 2, 2026 0 Comments

There are promising signs that Windows 11 26H2 could reduce RAM usage, but is this really a free performance boost?

Windows 11 26H2 is reportedly improving RAM consumption
Some users say they see 1GB to 3GB less memory usage after applying the update.
Others see no change and we should be careful with these reports, although Microsoft is working to optimize RAM usage in Windows 11.

There is some evidence emerging that the Windows 11 26H2 update improves performance for some people, although we should treat that idea with some caution at this stage.

Wccftech pointed to a post on Reddit where a Windows 11 user observed: “Before [26H2] Update, RAM utilization at boot was around 6.9GB (good!), and after update it is around 4.8-5GB. I guess there is some improvement in RAM utilization after all!”

Several other Redditors contribute similar stories, such as: “I looked at mine and it’s actually lower than it used to be.” [be] at around 3 GB. Nice.”

Analysis: caution first

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Of course, we must be very careful when jumping to conclusions based on a set of publications that are actually anecdotal observations. And as noted, there are an equal number of people who say they see no difference with 26H2.

However, Microsoft let us know that it’s working to make Windows 11 use less RAM in early August, so it’s possible that some of that effort has made its way to the operating system, with the installation of the 26H2 update acting as a switch to put it into action for more users. (As I mentioned above, while the 26H2 update doesn’t do much, it will act as a trigger for the rollout of features that haven’t yet reached some PCs.)

There’s a comment on the Reddit thread above from a user noting that after installing 26H2 they find that “File Explorer responds immediately and doesn’t take the usual 5 seconds to respond” – and again, File Explorer is something Microsoft has been perfecting. So what probably happened is that this work was started with the installation of the 26H2 update, which is why it is an update worth having. Especially given that Microsoft has been doing a lot with Windows 11 this year as part of the major campaign to fix the operating system.

Still, I would recommend waiting a bit to install Windows 11 version 26H2, just to see if any errors will appear. However, the update seems pretty clean so far due to the initial lack of major complaints about technical glitches.

Finally, as Windows Latest reports, it’s worth noting that Microsoft is also busy fixing memory issues with WinUI, which is the contemporary framework for the Windows 11 interface. This should help with the overall performance of not only the desktop operating system itself, but also apps that use WinUI.