The Math for This RAM Usage Ain't Mathing

For starters, no, the only malware on this device is Windows 11 and whatever hard to identify telemetry services from Lenovo come with a Yoga laptop. This has been an issue with Windows 10 too, with even my 32gb RAM desktop having difficulty with games my steam deck can handle perfectly well. But this is getting absolutely ridiculous.

The issue? RAM usage is far too high. My laptop has 16gb, so 13ish usable. I'm playing a game and have youtube playing a video. That's about 9gb RAM. So the math is there's 4gb free, and there shouldn't be much else going on. Right? Right?

Nope.

Dozens of system processes happening. I dig into them, some of them I disable after ensuring its safe to do so. Many I just turn to manual as there's no reason for them to be working. 

But that's like...A gigabyte AT MOST. Half of that according to task manager. So what's happening with the other 3.5gb? Why is that getting used up to the point my game is crashing at low graphics levels EVEN THOUGH it should absolutely have wiggle room. Additionally, why so many redundant processes? I went through the system processes, carefully checking none were malware. (Btw, Windows programmers? Please remember to sign this stuff and give it a reasonable name. There's one too many that have strange names or no description that make it look suspicious) And just...How many processes for IP do you need? For printing?

But again. While the task manager seems to make it seem like the culprit for that 4gb loss of RAM would be the system processes, the math just doesn't add up. They're too small. Which implies task manager is not actually showing all the tasks and processes. An implication I rather dislike given how even with Cortana, Microsoft has been shady with how it forced it on computers, not letting folks remove it, and that behavior has only gotten worse with Copilot.

And look. I'm frustrated that my laptop feels way too hot for what it was doing, and for the lack of control. I'm frustrated with many elements of windows. Thus the tone of this post. I'm also frustrated for the less techie folks who probably shouldn't even go near the list of system processes, who don't understand what is going on. I not only want answers, but I want the Windows team to work on making a better product. Not new features, not generative AI nonsense, not UI changes to the OS you're unable to change without an obscure unofficial plugin. Just. A better product, that runs smoothly, that users can make changes to, and doesn't force them to have to learn how Linux works just to have that experience.