In a blog post published Thursday, Microsoft claimed that its recent Windows 11 improvements make the OS up to 20% more responsive, with the biggest improvements on PCs with 8GB of RAM or less.
This was achieved by improving memory management across the OS. Per the blog post, Windows keeps up to 2GB more active data in RAM instead of moving it to slower storage. PCs with 8GB of RAM or less also wait to load Widgets until users intentionally open them, freeing more than 200MB of memory for apps and other tasks.
But that “20% more responsive” claim is Microsoft’s own figure—and a best-case one, at that. Windows Latest’s Abhijith M.B. reports that while he was able to get his three-year-old 16GB laptop to shave off 2GB of RAM usage, an 8GB PC owner didn’t see any of the promised improvements.
Aside from (allegedly) making Windows 11 machines a little more responsive, Windows has made AirPods pairing up to 15 seconds faster. It’s also testing a faster and more capable Windows Search experience with Windows Insiders and expects to conduct a wider rollout in late 2026.
