How To Free Up System Memory
The best way to speed up your PC is to give it more available memory—but freeing up as much of the memory you already have is cheaper and easier than cracking open your case to install a new. Sep 06, 2019 These are measured in terms of clock cycles and often grouped up under the “CAS Latency (CL)” abbreviation. For example, a midrange kit of DDR4 may be rated at 3200 Mhz CL16. Improving either the speed or timings improves latency and throughput. The memory talks to the rest of the computer using a system called Serial Presence Detect. May 01, 2020 We can free up RAM by closing unused programs that have high memory use. Click the “Memory” heading twice to sort the list by RAM usage. From there, it should be simple to find the hungry processes.
When you use up all of the available RAM on your computer, you may notice that your device struggles to complete tasks. If you find that your computer’s applications are frequently crashing and it takes longer to do simple tasks, then you might be wondering how to free up RAM on your computer.
What is RAM?
Your computer’s Random Access Memory (RAM) is stored on a memory chip that is typically found on the motherboard. This where your computer stores short term data. RAM is the hub of storage for all active and running programs and processes. Your computer uses the information it has stored in RAM to complete tasks while simultaneously receiving and performing other functions.
When you use up all of the available RAM memory, your computer’s performance can slow down because it doesn’t have the storage required to complete its tasks. When you clear RAM space, it gives your computer the capability to carry out tasks. Depending on your computer, there are a few different ways you can free up RAM space.
How to Make the Most of Your RAM
It can be easy to use up your RAM because it supports so many functions. Before you start removing programs from your computer, try these quick fixes to free up RAM space.
Restart Your Computer
The first thing you can try to free up RAM is restarting your computer. When you restart or turn off your computer, all of your RAM (stored data) will be wiped clean and programs will be rebooted. This can potentially clear out some processes and programs that are running behind the scenes, taking up your RAM storage.
Update Your Software
It’s important to be running the most updated versions of your computer software and applications. Older renditions of software and apps can take more memory to process, causing your computer to slow down.
Try a Different Browser
Something else you can try is changing browsers, as some have been known to use more data than others. If you’re not already, try using a browser like Chrome or Firefox, which are typically good browsers for memory management.
Clear Your Cache
If you still find yourself short on RAM, the next option is to try deleting your cache. Sometimes your cache can take up a lot of space because it uses RAM for memory functions. The cache holds on to information that your computer uses to reload pages it has seen before rather than downloading them again. This can save you time when browsing, but if you are short on RAM, it’s something you can sacrifice with minimal effect.
Remove Browser Extensions
Many of your daily work and home computer operations have been made easy by the use of browser extensions. However, they also require memory, so you might want to think about disabling or removing your extensions.
5 Ways to Free up RAM on Windows 10
If you are still having trouble freeing up your RAM storage, you might have too many programs and applications without even knowing. Try these five ways to free up RAM storage for Windows 10 computers.
1. Track Memory and Clean Up Processes
You should monitor your computer RAM usage so that you don’t deplete your supply before you really need it. To monitor your computer’s memory, you can navigate to the task manager to check the processes. This is where you’ll be able to see which programs are running and what kind of space they are taking up.
To locate your computer memory:
- Hold the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys to open the Task Manager.
- Select the “Processes” tab.
- Click the “Memory” column to view how much space they are taking up.
You can now see which of your programs are taking up the most time and space on your computer. If you find anything suspicious eating up your memory, you should delete programs you don’t need or use.
2. Disable Startup Programs You Don’t Need
If you have used your computer for at least a few years, then you have probably downloaded a fair amount of software that you either forgot about or no longer use. After the processes tab tells you which programs use the most space, you will want to maneuver to the startup tab to stop those you no longer need.
To disable startup programs:
- Select the “Startup” tab from the Task Manager.
- Click “Startup impact” to organize the programs from high to low usage.
- Right-click to disable any programs that you don’t need.
Startup programs are those that activate when your computer is booted up. When these programs start, each one takes up a little bit of RAM in the background without your consent. After a while, all of the software and programs can add up. Be sure that the ones that aren’t needed are disabled or removed.
3. Stop Running Background Apps
The next items that could be taking up RAM are your applications that are set to automatically run in the background. You may have used your computer for years before noticing some of these apps taking up your RAM storage. This can quickly exhaust your memory, battery, and data bandwidth.
To stop background apps:
- Go to computer settings.
- Click the “Privacy” category.
- Scroll down the panel on the left side to “Background Apps.”
- Turn off any apps you do not use.
Applications are often automatically set to run in the background of your device. This enables them to display notifications and update their software automatically. By turning this off on apps you don’t use, you can save RAM storage.
4. Clear Page File When Shutting Down
When you restart your computer, your page files don’t get cleared or reset because unlike RAM, they get stored on the hard drive. So, when RAM gets stored on-page files it does not get cleared with the rest at shutdown.
Clearing page files on your hard drive will clear any RAM it has stored and help keep your computer running efficiently. You can set this to automatically clear when your computer shuts down, just like the RAM. Do this by opening the Registry Editor:
- Type “Registry Editor” into the start menu search bar.
- Click “Yes” to allow Registry Editor to make changes to your device.
- On the left, scroll to and select “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.”
- Scroll to select “SYSTEM.”
- Select “CurrentControlSet.”
- Find and select “Control.”
- Scroll to select “Session Manager.”
- Look for and choose “Memory Management.”
- Select “ClearPageFileAtShutdown.”
- Enter the number “1” under the value data and hit OK.
5. Reduce Visual Effects
With improving technologies, there are many more possibilities for computer effects and visuals. For example, you can turn off the animations for apps and icons that use storage for unnecessary effects. If you seem to be running low on RAM storage, there are some effects you can shelve until you free up more memory.
To access your computer’s visual effects:
- Open your File Explorer.
- Right-click on “This PC” on the left-side panel to select properties.
- Click “Advanced system settings” on the left.
- Select the “Advanced” tab.
- Choose settings under the “Performance” category.
- Change to “Adjust for best performance.”
This setting will disable all animated features on your computer. This will create more storage for you, but limit your computer’s aesthetics significantly. However, you can also customize which visual effects your computer will perform to your preferences in the same tab.
5 Ways to Free up RAM on Mac
For Mac users, there are many convenient tools to monitor and free up RAM storage on your computer.
1. Fix the Finder (Close Finder Windows Too)
When you open a new window in the finder, the data each window displays gets stored as RAM. Adjusting the finder preferences can make your folders open in tabs rather than new finder windows.
To open your Finder Preferences:
- Click “Finder” in the top left of your screen.
- Right-click on “Preferences” from the dropdown options.
- Check to Open folders in tabs instead of new windows.
There is another way to clear RAM storage by merging your Finder windows. To do this you will select the “Window” dropdown rather than Finder. From there you will select “Merge All Windows” to put all your Finder windows into one place. This will save you on storage as well as declutter your desktop.
2. Check Activity Monitor
To keep track of your RAM usage on Mac you can check the Activity Monitor, which shows you how much memory is being used and what is using it. Utilize the Activity Monitor to determine which apps take up most of your storage. Remove the ones you no longer use.
To Check the Activity Monitor:
- Search “Activity Monitor” in the spotlight search bar (command + space).
- Click on the “Memory” tab.
- Remove unwanted applications.
3. Check CPU Usage
You can also use the Activity Monitor app to check your CPU health and usage. CPU is your Central Processing Unit, and it carries out instructions from the computer software information stored as RAM.
To monitor your CPU, just select the “CPU” tab in front of the memory tab. This is where you can see if any apps take more processing power than others.
4. Clean-Up Programs and Applications
If you are looking to keep a consistently healthy amount of RAM storage, then you will want to keep your computer clean and organized. A cluttered desktop is going to use storage much faster because macOS views each desktop icon as an active window. Even if you don’t think you can organize your files, putting everything into one general folder can free up a lot of RAM.
5. Free up Disk Space
If you find that your RAM is completely full, but you’re still in need of storage, you can use free space on your Mac’s drive called virtual memory. This extra storage is found on Mac computer’s hard drives so that you can continue running apps. The function is always on, however to use virtual memory you will need to be sure you have driver space available to swap.
Additional Ways to Free up RAM on Windows or Mac
The best thing to do is to be proactive with your computer’s RAM so that you don’t have to worry about freeing up space. Use these additional ways to keep your RAM storage free.
Install a Memory/RAM Cleaner
If you find that you do not have the time, or you just cannot manage to organize your computer, there are memory cleaner apps to help you disinfect your computer. Many of these cleaners have special features for removing apps or extensions and allow users to manage their startup programs.
Increase RAM
You can always add more RAM to your computer if you have a lot of information you don’t want to delete. Buying and installing RAM is easy to do for a desktop computer, but can be troublesome for laptops. Be sure that you invest in the correct type of RAM for your computer as well as the correct amount for your specific storage needs.
Scan for Virus and Malware
When you download any software programs or extensions to your computer there is the chance they could have a virus or malware attached. Once you have malware on your computer, it can steal both your information and your RAM space. To prevent picking up any malware or viruses try using Panda Security antivirus to protect your computer and memory.
Now is the time to stop file hoarding. Many of the files on your computer are taking up RAM space without you realizing it. Now you know how to safely declutter your computer of these unused files and how to free up RAM so your computer runs more efficiently.
Sources: ComputerHope | WindowsCentral | HelloTech | DigitalTrends
When you’ve used all the available RAM on your PC or laptop you might notice the system taking way to long to complete tasks, for instance, opening the This PC on Windows 10 or open software from the start menu. This is due to all the physical and available RAM on your system is completed used. Now to make your work smoother you have to clean the computer of yours.
Now you’re thinking, how do I free up ram on windows 10? there are some ways or methods that can be used to free up ram on the computer to boost the speed of the system processing without getting more ram. In this article, we are going to share some of the easy ways to free up ram on Windows 10 PC or laptop without having a hassle.
What is RAM? And Its Use on Computer
Well, RAM (Random Access Memory) is stored in the chipset on your computer motherboard same goes for the laptop. On this chipset, the computer store the short terms data in technical terms the RAM is the hub of the storage for all the programs and activities running on the computer system.
The computer used this stored information to complete the tasks while getting the data on the same time. So technically, when you used all the ram of your computer this may cause slow processing and you might seem all the programs and applications start processing slowing.
Overall the speed of your computer system performance will be decreased. To speed up your computer performance and processing can be easily increased again by cleaning some of the RAM storage on your system. Use below given methods to free up the RAM without hassle.
How To Free up ram on Windows 10 (15 Ways)
If you’re struggling with low Windows 10 system performance or 100% memory usage, High CPU. Then use these methods to free up memory on your computer system to speed up the performance and reduced memory usage.
Restart The Computer System
The Ram is volatile memory, you’ll lose its contents when your computer turned off. Restarting your computer system will clear memory saved on RAM and reset all the running programs and applications. However, this method won’t clear the complete memory but it will boost up the processing speed of the system. By cleaning up apps running on the background on Windows 10.
Update The Windows 10 & Softwares
It is most important to run an updated version of applications and software including Windows to get better system performance.
You must update all the software on your computer system along with the Windows 10 updates. For this Press Windows + I to open Windows settings. Go to the Updates & Security section and click on Windows update > check for updates.
Lookup RAM Usage
Before getting started the clean of RAM in Windows, you must see what program or application causing the RAM usage for this to follow these below-given steps.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+ ESC buttons together to open Task Manager.
- Now, Click on More Details to expand the full utility.
- Under the Processes tab, click on the Memory heard to sort the app which using more memory
For more deep information regarding the system memory usage, you can go to the Performance tab. Under the CPU section click on Memory to complete an overview of the RAM usage on your computer system. Click on the Open Resource Monitor at the bottom of the Task Manager to get more information.
Use Low Memory Management Web Browsers
If you’re using the default web browser such as Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer on Windows 10. Then you must try to change the web browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox. Both web browser has low memory management feature that consumes less memory of the RAM. Technically these two browsers are best for memory management on Windows 10 for fast web suffering and downloading.
Remove Bloatware Apps
You must don’t know some of the bloatware apps that you’ve installed on your Windows 10 PC that you’re currently not using them. Such as Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, and many more. These bloatware apps use more RAM of the computer.
If you don’t really need these apps on your computer. Then follow below-given steps to remove apps from Windows 10 PC to free up memory of the computer.
- Go to the Start Menu and type in the search bar “Apps and features” and open it.
- Now, Scroll to the bloatware app for example “WhatsApp”. Then click on it.
- Select the “Uninstall” button to remove it from the PC.
- Follow the on-screen uninstallation process to successfully remove the application.
After that restart, the PC to see the performance improvement or Else move to the next method.
Disable Startup Programs & Apps
If you’re using your Windows 10 computer for more than a year. Then you’ve downloaded and installed fair more software and some of this software and now some of that software was no longer in use. By using the third method Lookup Ram usage, Now you know which program using more memory and some of these apps are on startup.
This means the startup apps will automatically start running when you start your computer system. So to avoid this you can disable the startup apps on Windows 10 to boost up the memory of RAM.
Follow these below-given steps to disable startup programs.
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+ESC buttons together to open Task Manager.
2. Now, Go to the Startup tab.
3. Right-Click on the app that you no longer use on your PC.
4. From the pop-menu, select the “Disable” button.
Clear Web Browser Cookies & Cache Files
If you’re using the web browser on a regular basis to open different types of websites daily. Well, you must that every website has its cookies and cache that will be saved into the computer memory. When visited that website, Basically the cookies and cache help the web browser to load the web page faster for the next time when you open that website.
So, if you’ve haven’t cleared the cache on the web browser that you’re using on your computer for far longer. Then you’ve saved cookies and caches in GB that consuming the memory of the RAM. You can easily free up the RAM by clearing the cookies and cache of the web browser.
Note: After removing the cookies and cache in a web browser all the auto-login credentials will be deleted. You need to again login into the website.
To clear Cache and Cookies from a web browser (Google Chrome)
1. Open the Web Browser using the Start Menu or Desktop Shortcut.
2. Now Click on the (…) icon given at the right top corner to open the menu list.
3. Select, then Settings from the popup menu.
4. Navigate to the Privacy and Security section.
5. Now, Clear the Browsing Data, Cookies, Cache.
For the different web browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox, etc. There are different steps to clear the browsing history along with cookies and cache files.
Disable Background Apps
In Windows 10 lots of apps were running on the background of the system that cannot be seen in the display screen. However, these apps are consuming memory of the RAM and some of these apps are malware that affects computer running performance.
To increase the performance of the computer along with RAM memory, you’ve to stop the background running apps on the Windows 10.
1. Press Windows + I keys from the keyboard to open Windows Settings.
2. Go to the Privacy section.
3. Scroll down the left side panel. Then select “Background Apps” from the panel.
4. Now, disable the app that no longer in use.
How To Free Up System Memory Hp
Apps are often to run on the background of the computer system. This enables the apps to send notifications and update the software automatically which consumes lots of RAM memory without taking your permission. So you can easily turn off background apps on Windows 10 that are no longer useful.
Turn off Visual Effects
Windows 10 comes with pre-install visual effects such as tooltips, menus, and many more. This visual effect consumes lots of RAM space on the device, however, these visual effects won’t cause many issues. But if you’re device has lesser RAM then, in this case, you can disable visual effects to speed your computer performance by reducing the RAM storage.
To disable visual effects on Windows 10 follows –
1. Press Windows + E keys to open the File Explorer window.
2. Now, Right-Click on the This PC and choose Properties.
How To Free Up System Memory On Windows 10
3. Go to the Advanced System Settings.
4. After, this Click on the Settings option given at the Performance section.
5. Click on “Adjust for the best performance”.
Now all the visual effects will be disabled with these settings. In case if you want to customize the visual effect settings and click on custom and select any visual effect that you want to use or like.
Modify Virtual Memory on Windows 10
Physical System Memory
In Windows, the page file that used hard disk storage and works as virtual memory and you can make adjustments in virtual memory to speed your computer and free up RAM on Windows 10.
Follow the steps to change virtual memory on Windows.
1. Open Control Panel using the Start Menu.
2. Change the Category view to Small icon (if needed)
3. Click on the “Advanced System Settings” to open it.
4. After this, on the Advanced tab, Select the Settings given under the Performance panel.
5. Switch to the Advanced tab again and click on the Change button.
Remove Web Browser Extensions
We all used Google Chrome, Firefox, or Edge browser on Windows 10. It doesn’t matter which browser you’re using on your system. However, to get additional features such as download any video from the web page we used web extension.
Technically, these extensions carry malware with them into your PC that used lots of the RAM. For instance, you can see using the Task Manager in the processes tab. Sometimes the Google Chrome using lots of RAM this is because of the extensions that you’ve installed on the Chrome browser.
To free up the ram on Windows 10 remove the unwanted web extensions from the web browser that you’re used on a daily basis such as Google Chome.
Clear Page File Before Turning off PC
When you restart your PC the page files don’t get cleared because they are stored in the memory of the RAM technically the short term files store in hard drive. So after the shutdown of the PC, the page files don’t remove the file still remain the same and consume the memory of the RAM.
Technically, clearing the page files from the PC hard drive will free up the RAM space on your computer system. Fortunately, you can make page files deleted automatically when the system shutdown. To do that follow below-given steps.
- Type “Registry Editor” in the start menu search bar.
- On the pop-up window select “Yes” to allow Registry Editor.
- On the left, scroll to, and select “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ” > “SYSTEM” > “CurrentControlSet. ”
- Find and choose “Control ” > “Session Manager.”
- Now, choose “Memory Management.”
- Select “ClearPageFileAtShutdown.”
- Enter the number “1” under the value data and hit OK.
Tip: Copy and paste this link to the registry editor to avoid steps
Final Words
All these methods helped you to clear the RAM of your computer system to boost system performance. These steps help me out a lot of increase my laptop gaming performance on Windows 10. Because due to this I ‘ve free up lots of RAM storage on the device.
Unlike me, you can also try all these methods to free up the RAM on Windows 10 PC or laptop to get smoother computer experience.