Microsoft says Windows 11 multitasking sped up by up to 40% — The Verge

Microsoft has released a Windows 11 update with improvements to RAM usage for computers with 8 GB of RAM. According to the company’s laboratory tests, Windows became up to 20% faster at responding to user actions, while multitasking sped up by up to 40%, The Verge reports.

Memory data compression

Windows chief Pavan Davuluri explained that one of the key tools was in-memory data compression. This allows Windows to keep up to 2 GB of additional active data in RAM instead of moving it to slower storage.

According to Davuluri, this should reduce the likelihood of having to reload an app or tab that a user returns to. Compression also helps write data to the paging file on disk less often, which can slow down applications.

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Changes for Edge and Microsoft 365

Microsoft also announced changes to Windows, the Edge browser, and Microsoft 365 apps that are intended to reduce committed memory growth by up to 900 MB. Optimizations to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook save up to 360 MB of RAM in total, according to the company.

On devices with 8 GB of RAM, Windows 11 no longer loads widgets until the user opens the relevant panel, saving approximately 200 MB. Inactive tabs in Edge are now put to sleep after 15 minutes, further reducing memory consumption.

Further optimization

Microsoft said it plans to make memory compression more efficient in the future. The company also intends to enable component sharing between Windows features and apps, including so that widgets and search use a single web engine. Separately, Microsoft is working with PC and chip manufacturers to optimize the amount of memory reserved for hardware.