How to troubleshoot and resolve high memory usage on Windows

High memory usage on Windows can make the system feel sluggish, trigger application freezes, and increase disk activity when the PC starts swapping data instead of serving it from physical RAM.

Windows manages memory using physical RAM plus virtual memory (the page file) and distributes it across application working sets, file cache, and compressed pages. Task Manager exposes the key signals that matter for troubleshooting—how much memory is truly available, how close the system is to its committed limit, and which processes are consuming the most memory.

High utilization can be normal during heavy workloads, but consistently low Available memory, a Committed value close to its limit, or steadily growing pool usage often points to a runaway process, a background service doing too much work, a driver leak, or misconfigured page file settings. Ending the wrong process or disabling critical services can destabilize the system, and setting the page file too small can cause “out of memory” errors and reduce crash dump support.

1. Open Task Manager.

   Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Esc.

2. Confirm memory pressure in Performance → Memory.

   Low Available memory with Committed close to its limit usually indicates paging pressure and slowdowns.

3. Sort the Processes list by Memory to identify the largest consumers.

   Process          | Memory
   ------------------------------
   chrome.exe       | 1,250 MB
   Teams.exe        |   820 MB
   MsMpEng.exe      |   410 MB
   explorer.exe     |   180 MB

4. End the highest-memory non-essential process from the Processes tab.

   Unsaved work can be lost, and ending system processes (for example System or Local Security Authority Process) can force a sign-out or reboot.

5. Disable unnecessary startup apps in Task Manager → Startup apps.

   Disable only items that are not required at sign-in, and re-enable if a feature stops working.

6. Run a full malware scan in Windows Security.

   Scan type: Full scan
   Items scanned: 342,118
   Threats found: 0

7. Open the Advanced system settings dialog.

   Run SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe from the Start menu search or the Run dialog.

8. Open the Virtual memory configuration screen.

   Path: Advanced → Performance → Settings → Advanced → Virtual memory → Change.

9. Set the page file to System managed size on the system drive.

   A restart is required after changing Virtual memory, and setting the page file too small can trigger application failures and reduce crash dump support.

10. Stop or disable unneeded background services from Services.

    Disabling SysMain or Windows Search can reduce background memory use but may degrade app launch prefetching or search/indexing performance.

11. Install pending updates from Settings → Windows Update.

    Checking for updates
    Updates available: 2

    Restart when prompted so updates can fully apply.

12. Update system drivers from Device Manager for hardware with warnings or stability issues.

    Driver issues can surface as growing Non-paged pool memory in Task Manager → Performance → Memory.

13. Monitor for a leak by watching per-process memory growth in Resource Monitor for several minutes.

    Rapidly increasing private memory or consistently high Hard faults/sec indicates paging pressure or a misbehaving process.

14. Log memory counters over time in Performance Monitor if the issue is intermittent.

    Useful counters: Memory\Available MBytes, Memory\Committed Bytes, and Process\Private Bytes for the suspected application.

15. Run Windows Memory Diagnostic to rule out failing RAM.

    The system restarts to run the test, and unsaved work will be lost.

16. Confirm improved headroom in Task Manager → Performance → Memory after completing required restarts.

    If normal workloads still keep Available memory near zero, adding physical RAM is the durable fix.