A New Report Shows Windows 11's Built-in Weather App Can Consume Over 1 GB of RAM, a Major Issue for Computers With 8 GB of Memory

On an 8 GB system, that means the app alone occupies nearly 20% of available memory. By comparison, Apple's native Weather app on macOS uses less than 250 MB under similar conditions, making Microsoft's app about five times more memory-hungry. According to Windows Latest, the high usage stems from the app not being a fully native Windows application—it's essentially an MSN Weather web app built on Microsoft's WebView2 framework.

Task Manager shows multiple Chromium-based subprocesses running simultaneously, contributing to the unusually high RAM consumption. While this issue is unlikely to affect high-end systems with 32 GB or more RAM, it could have a noticeable impact on affordable entry-level machines. Microsoft has been seeking ways to make Windows 11 more efficient on limited-RAM computers, but one of its own built-in apps runs counter to that goal. The report highlights that this problem may be particularly significant for budget systems with 8 GB of RAM.