Earlier this year, Microsoft laid out a plan to fix Windows 11, focusing on performance, reliability, and the overall experience of the operating system. After months of fixes, Microsoft now says that “the result is an up to 20 percent more responsive Windows experience.” Microsoft has made improvements to Start, File Explorer, Search, Edge, and other parts of Windows 11 to make it feel faster and more responsive. “A big part of that work is making smarter use of memory and system resources,” said Navjot Virk, corporate vice president of Windows experiences at Microsoft. “We’ve improved memory management and efficiency in Windows to help keep more of your PC’s resources focused on what you’re actively doing.” Improvements to memory management now make a “significant difference” on PCs with just 8GB of RAM. “Windows can now keep up to 2 GB more active data in memory instead of moving it to slower storage,” says Virk. “For example, on PCs with 8 GB of memory or less, widgets load only when you open them, leaving more than 200 MB of memory available for your applications and other work.” Microsoft also made Windows Update less disruptive, cleaning up the widget section and finally allowing the taskbar to be repositioned to the sides or top of the screen. Windows Hello login has also been sped up and Bluetooth pairing is more reliable, “including an AirPods pairing experience that’s up to 15 seconds faster.” The next big step is a new Windows Search experience that’s much faster and more capable. I tested it last week and I think it’s one of the best new additions to Windows 11 this year. It’s currently available to Windows Insiders and Microsoft says it will “roll out more widely later this year.”
