Windows Memory compression (More RAM at the expanse of CPU)

In its 10525 build, Windows 10 introduced a feature known as Memory Compression also included in Windows 11. This feature aims to optimize the utilization of your system’s physical memory and reduce the need for disk-based pagefile IO operations.

Memory Compression works by compressing infrequently accessed pages and retaining them in a new compression store within the physical RAM. This process allows your PC’s RAM to store more data than its original capacity, which can enhance your system's performance.

For instance, if your PC has 8 GB of RAM available, and there’s 9 GB of data to be stored on it, Memory Compression will attempt to compress the extra data so it fits within the 8 GB capacity of your RAM. Without Memory Compression, your PC would store the extra data in a file on your hard drive storage, which can slow down your PC as it takes more time to read data from a file on the hard drive than from RAM.

While Memory Compression can improve performance, it does use more CPU resources. If you notice a lot of compressed memory and think it’s slowing down your PC, there are a couple of solutions. One solution is to install more physical memory (RAM). This will allow your system to store more data in RAM without needing to compress it, reducing the CPU usage associated with Memory Compression.

If installing more RAM is not feasible, you can disable Memory Compression. Here’s how:

1. Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
2. Type the following command and press Enter: `Disable-MMAgent -mc`
3. Restart your computer.

In conclusion, Memory Compression is a feature designed to optimize your system's performance by making efficient use of your RAM. It's a tool that can be beneficial, but like all tools, it's important to understand how it works and when to use it.