I have 16GB of physical RAM, but I notice that Windows 11 sometimes maxes out my RAM and utilizes a staggering 24GB of the swap file for something that isn't even visible in Task Manager. This leads to significant slowdowns, and despite my moderately decent level of PC knowledge, I can't seem to identify the cause or what is consuming all this memory. Does anyone know how I can find out what's going on and prevent this from happening?
4 Answers
It sounds like you might want to try using the RAMMap tool. It helps you see what's occupying your cached memory, and I suspect it could be an app that's misbehaving rather than an issue with Windows itself. You might find what's hogging the resources there.
If you're desperate to find what's taking up space, consider downloading WinDirStat and running it as an administrator. I had a similar experience where over 200GB was reserved for the page file due to a faulty Windows update. You should also think about rebuilding the search index—it can sometimes lead to odd memory issues.
It could also be a memory leak problem within Windows itself. I've experienced similar issues, and there's a thread on Microsoft's forum that talks about high memory usage even when Task Manager doesn't show anything. Might be worth a look!
Additionally, there’s an option in Windows where you can customize memory management yourself instead of allowing Windows to take control. It's definitely worth checking out!
Where can I find that option?
Totally agree! RAMMap or even Process Explorer could really help you pinpoint the issue.