This Windows feature secretly eats up RAM and slows your PC over time

Did you know that there is an “efficiency” feature in Windows 10 and Windows 11 that is actually not very efficient at all? At least not when it comes to system memory usage. The feature is called Delivery Optimization and its main purpose is to “optimize” downloads of updates and applications from Microsoft:

You can use delivery optimization to reduce bandwidth consumption by sharing the download work. [Windows update, upgrade, and application] packages across multiple devices in your deployment.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has failed to fully optimize the Delivery Optimization feature. It can be useful for what it does, but it consumes more of your computer’s system resources over time.

Apparently, one user (spotted by Neowin) mentioned that delivery optimization “is going to eat up all your memory and just sit there for fun.” Then, a Reddit user named Niff_Naff did some testing and found that “the service can consume a lot of your system’s memory” over time:

Niff_Naff / Reddit

Fortunately, it is possible to disable Delivery Optimization, which is done through Windows Settings. Simply go to Windows Update > Delivery Optimization. There, uncheck “Allow downloads from other computers”.

Hopefully you now have a little more system memory left for more important processes!

Further reading: 12 Simple Windows 11 Tweaks for a Faster PC