Debloating Windows 11 for Work

[MrRongCar]

Hi all,

At work, we're really struggling with Windows 11 - it's MUCH slower than it should be.


E.g. I'm using a device with a Core Ultra 5 236v and 16GB of RAM, SSD.



The work I do is predominantly web-based, but I regularly have the laptop freeze/slow down, and giving me signs I associate with not enough RAM.

Sometimes I turn on the device, and it can take 15+ minutes to boot.




Others have laptops with 8GB of RAM and they really struggle to work at times.




What I can't wrap my head around is - why on earth is 8GB of RAM not enough for having a few webpages open?



My home PC has Windows 10 and 16GB of RAM, and I can run considerably more content on it. Hell, when I first started building PCs, 8GB was plenty for gaming.




I don't believe that web pages have suddenly become memory hogs.





The impression I get using different OS', is that Windows 11 has really poor memory optimisation.




My question is: Is there anything which can be done about it?

 

[throwaway4372]

It's your laptop CPU being designed for efficiency. For a work laptop you want an H or HX processor.

Intel Core Ultra U vs H vs V: What's the Difference? LaptopsExplained.com

Not sure what the U, H or V means on an Intel laptop processor? We break down all three in plain English so you can buy the right laptop with confidence.

laptopsexplained.com

You can check RAM usage in Task Manager, your 16GB probably isn't full, but his 8GB might be.

 

[MrRongCar]

It's your laptop CPU being designed for efficiency. For a work laptop you want an H or HX processor.

Intel Core Ultra U vs H vs V: What's the Difference? LaptopsExplained.com

Not sure what the U, H or V means on an Intel laptop processor? We break down all three in plain English so you can buy the right laptop with confidence.

laptopsexplained.com

I understand that, but in terms of raw computer power, it should be more than capable for what I'm trying to do with it.

You can check RAM usage in Task Manager, your 16GB probably isn't full, but his 8GB might be.

Difficult to measure it through TM because of the way Windows allocates memory - I've checked it on devices running 8/16/32GB of RAM and they all show high usage.

 

[Nevakonaza]

You should ask them to get Windows 11 IOT its a stripped down version with all the crap removed.

I'm not surprised the 8GB laptop is struggling even with just a few tabs open, Windows 11 eats up 6.8GB of memory here doing absolutely nothing.
(i mean yeah got drivers installed) ,Steam, Discord etc loaded but still way too inefficient.

 

[sandys]

Have you checked what is using the RAM, there is this parasitic process from Logitech, the Lamp array translation service or something that is used as part of dynamic LED control in windows that will take all my 32gb and bring my X7 to its knees, I need to disable the service. Seems to be Intel specific issue with Logitech software, never been a problem on my AMD devices using same Logitech hardware.

Also disable the AI processes/services, I forget what it is called but likes to consume lots of RAM and use the NPU for stuff in the 'background' but wastes battery etc.

I have windows 11 on most of my machines and they do run quite well with low RAM, it will be something on your system not W11 that is the problem. That said my smallest machine is 16Gb, so not as small as 8Gb but I play games on it no bother which max out resources.

Lots of stuff on the Web suggesting Windows is bad an RAM but it just caches a lot as is typically why it feels faster than other OS.

 

[ED209]

Check task manager, this will show you how much ram is being used.

To be honest chuck it at your IT to deal with as I am assuming this is a laptop provided by your company?

 

[throwaway4372]

Also check the power plan is on performance.

 

[sandys]

Also check the power plan is on performance.

Whilst this will get you performance, if you are doing browser based stuff might not be needed, most of mine run on power efficiency with no bother even on work machine with all of its spyware as I don't want any fans ramping.

my work machine is an older spec 155U it does have W11 Enterprise which cuts some of the consumer bloat out

Of course whilst my machine only has 2 performance cores vs his 4, I have 8 efficient cores and 2 Low power whereas the 236v only has 4 PE and 4 LPE so perhaps it just doesn't have appropriate processing with 4 proper cores.