Op-Ed: Windows 11 memory upgrade in the works and about time

If you open Task Manager on Win 11, you will see a reasonably baffling range of tasks. You will see strange, ridiculous amounts of memory usage on your tabs. This is normal. Windows is about to fix these issues with an improved Win UI and Start menu rewrite.

This unexpected sensitivity to the obvious is long overdue. Whining about Win11 is a global sport and usually not very productive. On any decent device, Win 11 is quite OK as long as it does what you need it to do. It’s not flashy, and it does the job. That’s fine. That’s all that’s required.

What Win11 in its current configuration doesn’t do is manage the clutter beyond a certain point. Lag and slowness in ordinary usage may have many perfectly valid reasons, but they’re predictable inefficiencies, and they’re annoying.  The proposed changes are inevitable, with a few caveats about how they’ll perform relative to hardware.

Thou shalt not clunk

Windows users typically bump into things they’ve never heard of. Any degree of sniffing about for a runtime fix or sorting out an issue involves How To terminology you may or may not recognise.

The new upgrade is no exception. There’s a lot of expert-level shorthand about the new upgrades, and it’s more than a bit clunky for people who simply want to know how to use their stuff.

The terminology also merrily gets in the way of easy explanations for users. In this case, some expressions may not be familiar:

WinUI: Exactly what it looks like but supposedly slanted to developers. WinUI is the native user interface but upgraded and ships independently of the OS. To deliver performance, WinUI needs to be faster. The idea is to use less RAM. The Microsoft WinUI3 Gallery page is indicative.

React Native Windows:  This is a broad-palette runtime enhancement across the Windows device spectrum. Take a little time to read the link, because there’s a lot packaged into that expression, and the word “native” now seems unavoidable. It usually means “built in”.

Universal Windows Platform: The common platform for Windows 10 and 11, now being superseded by WinUI.

Windows App SDK: A general evolution which “Enhances existing stacks like WPF, WinForms, and C++ Win32 apps instead of replacing them” according to Gemini.

Talking to two markets or not?

A critique is required here. If you’re somehow getting the impression that the available information is as domestic-user-comprehensible as a Sumerian clay tablet about a cartload of copper 3,000 years ago, you’re not alone. If you’re a dev, the current news about the new Windows upgrade initiative is easy. If you’re a common or garden user, you could spend hours wading through the swamps of tech speak.

This upgrade actually is an important, useful, major market initiative by a global market superpower, and seriously, it shouldn’t need tides of semi-explanation.

This upgrade is playing to two audiences, devs and users, neither of whom could care less about the other’s issues.

The dynamic expressions for users related to these upgrades are:

Faster

Efficiency

Fluent

Less RAM

Available

Download

The Microsoft page for WinUI3 does include at the bottom of the page “Available on: PC OS: Windows 10 version 17763.0 or higher”, with a download button at the top of the page, and that’s it. Not overly articulate, is it?

The better option would be to simply illustrate the benefits for each dynamic. This is how it works, and this is what’s in it for you, followed by this link is where you get it. Even on a page with a 2-point font, it’d look better, too.

The main reason for this degree of nitpicking is that Windows users are fluent in their own applications. They need to see value as it applies to them. Show and Tell is good enough. If you were to do a market study on the amount of mysticism required for daily use, you’d get a big fat zero.

The upgrade in two stages

The priority for Microsoft’s Win11 overhaul is to get WinUI ready for deployment. That’s the underpinning framework for the rest of the improvements. The Start menu will be rewritten to incorporate the changes after WinUI is ready.

This upgrade was flagged back in March. According to techpowerup.com, previous claims of improved memory efficiency have met a frigid response.

At the bottom of the techpowerup.com page you’ll also see “Related News”, and a series of problems from 2025 regarding major negative issues with Windows 11 which are indicative of the actual state of play.

There’s probably some sort of “Moore’s Law for increasingly clunky systems”.  There should be an equation for additions that simply add data loads relative to the OS to the point of dysfunction rather than do anything useful. AI is the obvious candidate for creating clunky systems in the future.

Talking about clunky, high-function AI should also be a manageable extra for users, not a must-have for the OS. AI should be available when necessary, otherwise just an add-on. Future systems could be hopelessly cluttered unless that distinction is made.

The simple fact is that Windows needs to stick with its original precept. The original Windows was simple, efficient, and stable. Those should be the sole criteria going forward.