How to fix high memory usage in Windows 7, 8 and 10

Some Windows 10 users have experienced an issue where the system starts normal but later gets abnormally slow due to high memory usage. This can affect any PC or Laptop, even ones with high amount of RAM. Even after closing all the memory consuming processes via task manager (ctrl+alt+del), the problem still persists and Windows 10 will run low on memory gradually. Some users have temporarily fixed the problem via a simple reboot.

How to fix high memory (RAM) usage in Windows 10

1. First download and install Windows Driver Kit
2. Now, press Start (windows) key and type “Command”
3. Right click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”
4. Assuming you have installed the WDK on C: drive, type this command in the command prompt CD: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\ 
5. Press Enter
6. Now Type poolmon.exe and press Enter. First press P to sort according to pooltype and then press B to list it via number of bytes
7. Now write down the pooltag of the item in the list that is using the highest number of bytes (memory).
8. Open another command prompt (follow step 1 & 2). Here you will find the driver name of the pooltag. For this, type f indstr / s (insert name of the pooltag you noted in step 7)
9. Now in the command prompt you will be directed to a particular system file associated with the pooltag that’s consuming high amount of memory. Going to the file properties of the system file, you can find out the driver name.

Once you find the driver names, head to the Microsoft website and search for the appropriate driver for Windows 10. Install it and then the high memory usage issue due to incompatible drivers will be resolved.

Here are some more ways to prevent low memory problem in Windows 10: 

• Increase the virtual memory size. Steps here
• Install more RAM: Make sure you have at least 4GB installed. If you plan on installing lots of applications that run in the background or operate memory intensive tasks, install additional RAM as required.
• Check for Memory Leaks: Open task manager (press ctrl+alt+del). Then check if any app is consuming abnormally large amount of memory.

Adjust RAM performance

1. On the start screen of your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 device you need to left click or tap on the “Desktop” icon.
2. You will have there a “Computer” icon. You will have to right click on it or tap and hold in order to bring up the next menu.
3. Left click or tap on the “Properties” option.
4. Now in the properties window you will need to left click or tap on the “Advanced System settings” feature situated on the left side in the window.
5. Now you have in front of you the “System properties” window.
6. In the window above you should have a “Performance” topic and you need to left click or tap on the “Settings” icon.
7. Now you have a “Performance options” window in front of you.
8. Left click or tap on the option “Adjust for best performance”.
9. Left click or tap on the “Apply” button.
10. Left click or tap on the “OK” button to close this window.
11. Close all the other open windows.
12. Reboot your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 operating system.
13. Check and see how your RAM usage is doing now.

Disable startup programs

See what programs are running at startup of the Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 device.

If you don’t need all of them to startup when the Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 boots I would suggest taking them out and opening them only when you need it. You can use the described steps below to take out a specific app from the startup feature.

1. Press and hold the button “Windows” and the button “R”.
2. Now that your run window shows you will need to write in there “msconfig” without the quotes.
3. Press the “Enter” button on the keyboard.
4. Now that you have the “Task manager” window in front of you left click or tap on the “Startup” tab situated in the upper side of the window.
5. You will have there a list of programs that run at startup.
6. If you want to disable them you only need to right click or tap and hold on a specific application and left click or tap on the “Disable” feature.

Run a virus/malware scan

Run a full system virus scan to ensure that you don’t have any third party programs that make your system RAM take up more usage.

Reboot your PC periodically

It is always helpful in case your Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 operating system is not working at the speed you want it to reboot it once in a while. If you do a reboot of the system this would ensure that you don’t have blocked applications in your processes even though you closed the previously.

This will determine memory leak. (Example- Older version of Chrome browser had a lot memory leak issue) Once you find out such application, make sure it is up to date i.e. download its latest version. If the problem persists, uninstall the app and report the issue to the developer.