Windows 11 26H2 RAM Reports Split Users

A cluster of user reports suggests Windows 11's 26H2 update may cut memory use on some machines, with claimed reductions ranging from about 1GB to more than 3GB. The same reports, however, include users who installed the update and noticed no difference at all, leaving the picture unsettled. Microsoft has previously said it is working to make Windows 11 use less RAM.

Where the reports come from

Wccftech flagged up a post on Reddit in which a Windows 11 user described the change in on-boot memory usage. The user wrote: "Before the [26H2] Update, the On Boot RAM utilization was around 6.9GB (nice!), and after the update it is around 4.8-5GB. I guess there is some RAM utilization improvement after all!"

Other Redditors added similar observations in the same thread. One wrote: "I looked at mine and it is indeed lower than it used to [be] by around 3GB. Nice." Another said: "I noticed this as well. RAM utilization went down by about a gigabyte on my machine. Pretty good stuff."

Wccftech also pointed to a post on X from SoyITPro, whose baseline RAM usage reportedly went from 9.1GB to 7.5GB. Other users in that thread said their usage dropped by 1GB or slightly more after installing 26H2.

The users seeing no change

Not everyone who installed the update reported a memory benefit. According to the source, there are users posting that they see no difference in RAM usage compared with before the update.

The source also notes that some of those reporting larger drops have larger RAM pools, which is relevant for anyone with a lean 8GB configuration hoping for a similar result.

Taken together, the reports are a mix: some users describe a clear reduction, and others describe nothing at all.

Why the evidence is limited

The observations are anecdotal and come from individual users rather than a controlled test. No standardized before-and-after measurement is described in the source, and the reports do not specify identical conditions, hardware, or background workloads.

That means the 1GB to 3GB figures should be treated as individual reports rather than a guaranteed outcome. The source itself advises caution before drawing conclusions from a cluster of posts.

What Microsoft has said

Microsoft let the source outlet know that it was working on making Windows 11 use less RAM at the start of August. Some of that effort may have made its way into the operating system, with the 26H2 update potentially activating work for more users.

The source describes installing 26H2 as something of a switch: while the update itself does not do much, it acts as a trigger for the rollout of features that have not yet reached some PCs.

That framing is an inference from the available information rather than a confirmed explanation from Microsoft, but it is consistent with the split in user reports.

File Explorer and the WinUI angle

One comment in the Reddit thread noted that after installing 26H2, "File Explorer responds immediately and it doesn't take its usual 5 seconds to respond." File Explorer is one of the components Microsoft has been refining.

The source also points to Windows Latest reporting that Microsoft is busy shoring up memory issues with WinUI, the framework used for the Windows 11 interface. That work is expected to help overall performance for the desktop OS and for apps that use WinUI.

Upgrade advice from the source

The source advises waiting a little while before installing Windows 11 26H2, to see whether bugs emerge. It adds that the upgrade seems clean enough so far, based on the initial lack of major complaints about glitches.

For readers weighing the update, the source's position is cautious: the RAM reports are interesting but not yet reliable enough to treat as a confirmed improvement.

• Reported drops in RAM usage range from about 1GB to more than 3GB, depending on the user.
• One Reddit user reported on-boot RAM going from around 6.9GB to around 4.8-5GB after installing 26H2.
• A post on X from SoyITPro reported baseline RAM usage falling from 9.1GB to 7.5GB.
• Microsoft said at the start of August that it was working on making Windows 11 use less RAM.
• Some users with larger RAM pools reported bigger drops, while others saw no change.

Why it matters for readers

For anyone running Windows 11 on a machine with limited memory, a genuine reduction of 1GB or more would be significant. But the reports suggest the effect is inconsistent, and the users describing the largest drops appear to have more RAM to begin with. That does not mean smaller systems see nothing, only that the available accounts do not establish a predictable benefit across configurations.

In practice, this leaves the 26H2 memory story as a collection of individual observations rather than a confirmed feature. Readers considering the update may want to check their own system's memory use before and after installing, and to weigh the source's advice to wait for broader reporting or an explicit acknowledgement from Microsoft.