Just over three weeks have passed since Windows 10 reached millions of computers, and we've already been able to learn a bit more about how it works. Recently, reports surfaced that the process known as System was devouring large amounts of RAM, even surpassing the gigabyte mark. However, all the subsequent complaints about the existence of a bug are unfounded: System is doing its job, and it's doing it well.
When we talk about programs that consume too much RAM, we refer to the idea that they most likely are wasting it. While we all know that unused RAM is wasted RAM, excesses caused by leaks, bugs, or bad programming in general have a very similar effect. Today's computers can receive significant amounts of RAM, and 64-bit support has allowed us to easily surpass the old 4 GB barrier. Now, not even a large volume of memory justifies the waste that certain applications commit. For that reason, we think it's excellent to see users concerned about RAM consumption, especially when it comes to the operating system. It is necessary to highlight the improvements that Microsoft implemented in its operating systems when managing memory, and fortunately we can see them in action on Windows 10. Of course, when a user sees the System process occupying 1.5 GB of RAM or more, they tend to think the opposite…
What's actually going on?
To begin with, nothing bad. The System process works exactly as it was planned, so its high RAM consumption is not the product of a bug. The image that the folks at Lifehacker published about the "incident" seems alarming at first glance, but there is a background explanation. In previous versions of Windows, when physical memory is about to be exhausted, the operating system dumps the least requested data blocks to the swap file. If a program asks for that data, the access will be much slower (assuming the swap file is on a hard drive), but it will prevent serious errors from lack of memory. In Windows 10, there is an additional step: Before resorting to the "last resort" that is the swap file, the operating system compresses memory pages so they take up less space.
What can you do about it?
All the compressed memory is stored under the umbrella of the System process. The longer the computer stays on and the more background programs are running, the higher the probability of seeing a huge System process. Honestly, we can't give a solution because there is no problem, but those who don't enjoy this behavior in Windows 10 will have to lower their memory footprint, either by stopping processes that load at startup, disabling unnecessary services, reducing the number of open tabs in browsers, or simply restarting the system. Some guides suggest disabling Superfetch, but that points to other symptoms in Windows, and in this case we don't recommend it.
Lifehacker
