A recent X post by Mikhail Parakhin, who was the former boss of Windows and Bing, revealed that years ago, Microsoft engineers had an internal “20/20 project” that had a goal of reducing Windows’s idle RAM usage and installation size.Parakhin, who had several titles at Microsoft, was replying to a post by the present Windows President, Pavan Davuluri, about Microsoft’s commitment to Windows quality, which, if you haven’t heard already, is the company’s attempt at fixing Windows 11 from the ground up.Mikhail Parakhin talking about 20/20 project that could’ve reduced RAM usage by 20%The then Microsoft executive expressed appreciation that Pavan Davuluri was “restarting” a push he and Jeff Johnson (present-day CTO at Microsoft) had started many years ago, called the ‘20/20 project,’ which aimed to reduce Windows’ idle memory consumption and the fresh install size on disk, both by 20 percent.If it worked out, the idle Windows 11 RAM usage would’ve been around 4.8GB, but unfortunately, as Prakhin said, “We never got to finish”.Now, fast forward to 2026, and Microsoft is once again talking about improving performance, responsiveness, and memory efficiency. It’s the same problem Microsoft tried to solve years ago.Which brings up the obvious question. If Microsoft couldn’t complete something as fundamental as reducing RAM usage back then, what has changed now? And more importantly, can Windows 11 become efficient, or is this just another attempt that may run into the same challenges?Why is Windows 11 RAM usage high?Windows 11 runs more background services than all previous versions, including telemetry systems, indexing, and security features. Components like Windows Defender run continuously, search indexing is always active, and features such as Widgets and feeds keep refreshing content in the background. Add cloud integration like OneDrive syncing, and the system is constantly doing something even when it appears idle.Everything is preloaded, pre-indexed, and always available, which improves perceived responsiveness but increases baseline memory usage.Web-based apps are inflating memory usage in Windows 11Even if Microsoft optimizes Windows itself, there is a much bigger problem sitting on top of it.A large number of popular apps today are built using Chromium-based frameworks like Electron or on WebView2 inside Windows. Apps like WhatsApp Desktop and Discord are well-known examples.“WhatsApp” is new version and “WhatsApp Beta” is old UPW/WinUI in the screenshotEven Microsoft’s own apps, including Teams, Clipchamp, and Widgets, are already using WebView2, and these come built in.What’s surprising is that despite pushing AI like it’s the most important technology in the world, Microsoft is apparently ditching the native Copilot app in favour of a web wrapper.Web apps like thus runs its own instance of a Chromium engine, along with multiple processes for rendering, scripting, and background tasks. So, a single app can easily consume hundreds of megabytes of RAM. Now imagine using them together…Fragmented UI stack increases overheadWindows 11 is not based on a single unified UI framework. Instead, it uses a mix of legacy Win32 components, UWP elements, modern WinUI layers, and web-based technologies like WebView2 and React.Microsoft developers explaining the use of React Native in Windows 11 Start menu in 2023This hybrid approach gives Microsoft flexibility, but when different parts of the OS rely on different rendering pipelines and system resources, it leads to additional memory usage.Microsoft has already acknowledged this problem and is now moving more components toward WinUI3, which, being a native framework, will have lower latency and better efficiency. However, this transition will take time because Microsoft developers have to rewrite core parts of the OS.Why the original 20/20 project likely stalledMikhail Parakhin hasn’t mentioned why the 20/20 project never got finished, but it’s safe to assume that it needed more time and resources. Reducing RAM usage in Windows requires some deep architectural changes.To cut memory usage, Microsoft would have had to remove or rethink background services, simplify its UI stack, and potentially limit the expansion of web-based components. But at the same time, the company was adding more features, integrating cloud services, and later pushing AI experiences into the OS.You cannot aggressively reduce system overhead while simultaneously expanding platform capabilities.The 20/20 project likely ran into these trade-offs and became impractical without sacrificing features or slowing down development. And instead of making those compromises, Microsoft chose to continue expanding Windows.Can Microsoft fix Windows 11 RAM usage in 2026?In its latest Windows Insider communication, Microsoft says it’s working to lower the baseline memory footprint of Windows, which should make more available RAM for apps and smoother day-to-day usage.Windows 11 PCs are getting a performance boost in 2026. Source: MicrosoftAt the same time, Microsoft is targeting responsiveness under load. Instead of Windows slowing down when multiple apps are open, the goal is to keep interactions consistent throughout the day. That also includes improving multitasking behavior so switching between apps feels instant.Microsoft is focusing on reducing interaction latency, improving the shared UI infrastructure, and moving more components toward native frameworks like WinUI3.Why 2026 might be different for Windows 11Windows is facing more public scrutiny than it has in years. Performance complaints have become mainstream conversations. Microsoft cannot afford to ignore that anymore.Then there’s the hardware and market pressure. Apple’s efficiency-focused chips have reshaped expectations, and the MacBook Neo has brought RAM usage into the limelight. Add to that the global rise in memory prices, and Windows 11 performance improvements become a business priority.For the first time in years, user expectations, competitive pressure, and Microsoft’s internal priorities are all pointing in the same direction.The post Microsoft once tried to cut Windows 11 RAM usage, install size by 20%, now it’s trying again in 2026 appeared first on Windows Latest