Windows Update is using a lot of memory these days it seems

[mikeymikec]

I've been noticing this mostly with Windows 7 64-bit, but I've seen it on 32-bit a few times as well. Windows Update is working fine on my system, yet even though I've run things like Disk Cleanup (with Windows Update cleanup enabled), sfc /scannow and the Windows Update Readiness Tool, its memory usage appears to peak at about 1.3GB RAM, which is about 1GB more than when Win7 was originally released.

I haven't seen it go quite as high on 32-bit (~1GB usage peak IIRC), but on those systems it's definitely problematic (netbooks with 1 or 2GB RAM for example).

I suspect that Win7 experiences this issue because of the sheer number of updates since SP1, and my guess is that Win81 U1 does not exhibit this issue to the same extent, yet.

Admittedly I don't know whether it's a Microsoft Update specific issue - one can see if this is enabled in CP > WU, in the line:

You receive updates: For Windows and other products from Microsoft Update

But my feeling is that it's not down to that. I normally have MS update enabled these days because all the VisualC stuff gets updated through there as well as the more obvious candidates such as recent-ish versions of MS Office.

It's worth bearing in mind if you don't have oodles of RAM / cash, or perhaps your system's maximum RAM capacity isn't that high.

I would be interested to know whether other Vista / Win7 / Win8x users are seeing similar figures to what I've mentioned, perhaps post the peak memory usage of the relevant svchost process here, as well as the version of Windows you're running (and 32/64).

 

[corkyg]

Sorry, but I never pay heed to that. I have recently used Win Update on Win 7 (X2) and 8.1 (X4.) My long standing practice is never to do anything while that is happening. After it is started, I go do something else.

Mine are all 32 bit, and 3GB RAM. I rarely ever multitask.

Next time, I will check usage. It's a good question.

 

[velis]

I just noticed this as well. Installed a fresh VM with 2GB RAM (I thought it would be plenty for what I needed). While installing the updates, windows complained about RAM usage being too high and I wasn't even running any apps.

 

[cubby1223]

If you want your system to run smoothly you need to approach the system as if a whole core and 1gb ram is dedicated solely to Windows Update. It's ridiculous but that's just the way it is. It becomes more and more significant when you try and piece together minimal systems for people who don't have money to spend on Haswell i5's. Used to be able to get away with the low-end Core 2 Duos and just 2gb ram for a smooth Win7, but not anymore.

With Windows XP, Microsoft Update ate up tons of system resources whereas Windows Update was fine and didn't affect performance much. But in Windows 7, the "Microsoft Update" version has little additional affect, it's "Windows Update" itself being the hog.

 

[kurt454]

Just did a clean install of Win7 64 bit and got a low memory error when running Windows Update. This was on a basic office machine with 4gb of ram. WU was downloading about 750mb of updates all at once, but that was still the first time I have ever seen that error while updating.

 

[escrow4]

No issues with 16GB RAM on Win 8.1. Everyone should be on 8GB RAM in a daily system. Set it and forget it. Otherwise you run into issues like this.

 

[pauldun170]

Having a mix of physical boxes and VMs ranging from 16GB down 2GB on 32bit and 64bit, I've never noticed any issues with windows update and ram usage.

 

[bbhaag]

I checked it out after reading this thread. My ram usage shot from 1.6gb to 2.1gb when installing the latest updates(a Windows Defender definition). I had Chrome and other things open to. I'm using 8.1 with 8gb installed.

 

[mikeymikec]

I just noticed this as well. Installed a fresh VM with 2GB RAM (I thought it would be plenty for what I needed). While installing the updates, windows complained about RAM usage being too high and I wasn't even running any apps.

Memory usage has always been high during the initial load of updates, I've seen it go way higher than the 1.3GB figure I mentioned. I was only referring to a normal, reasonably up-to-date machine checking for updates (I checked yesterday on my home PC, there weren't any new updates waiting but the memory usage still happened).

 

[cubby1223]

No issues with 16GB RAM on Win 8.1. Everyone should be on 8GB RAM in a daily system. Set it and forget it. Otherwise you run into issues like this.

Of course! Everyone wants to spend an extra $50 on each computer rather than having that money to pay for other things!

 

[postmortemIA]

Of course! Everyone wants to spend an extra $50 on each computer rather than having that money to pay for other things!

yep, for casual internet and office use, 4GB is still enough. Hell, even 2GB should do.

 

[pcgeek11]

I also have never had an issue running update on any of my systems most with 2 GB or less running Windows XP and 7 up to Windows 8.1...

I would think using the memory is a good thing, I mean that is what it is for, right?

Unused memory is wasted memory is what I have always gone by.

 

[postmortemIA]

I also have never had an issue running update on any of my systems most with 2 GB or less running Windows XP and 7 up to Windows 8.1...

I would think using the memory is a good thing, I mean that is what it is for, right?

Unused memory is wasted memory is what I have always gone by.

you can't give 1+GB of RAM to windows update if system has 2-4GBs total, and let's say another 1GB goes to OS... what is left for user?

This is different from caching, where memory is available to a different use upon request. Here user pretty much has no memory left.

I have also seen this. System out of RAM, user has barely used 500MB.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Unused memory is wasted memory is what I have always gone by.

Better too much then too little memory. These days there just isn't an excuse to have less then 4GB in a system IMHO...

 

[pcgeek11]

All I can say is I have never ran out of memory doing updates or anything else on systems with 2 GB running any OS.

Your mileage could vary.

 

[Ketchup]

So, just to make sure I understand you correctly mikeymikec, you are seeing this warning on a new install when running Windows Update for the first hundred or so updates?

I guess I don't see the problem. Since you are running Windows updates on a fresh install, I wouldn't be trying to do anything else on the machine anyway.

Now I don't know what order you use, but I wonder if you install SP1 (off a flash drive, for example), and only install updates after that point, if you would still run into the problem?

 

[mikeymikec]

I also have never had an issue running update on any of my systems most with 2 GB or less running Windows XP and 7 up to Windows 8.1...

I would think using the memory is a good thing, I mean that is what it is for, right?

Unused memory is wasted memory is what I have always gone by.

Most computers run Windows off a HDD. If Windows doesn't have enough RAM (and some to spare) when Windows Update is triggered, the process will take much longer than usual because Windows will start using the disk's pagefile much more aggressively (in my experience, if memory usage goes >75%), and anyone using it will notice that the computer's responsiveness has gone down the toilet.

If enough RAM is added (I normally recommend 4GB for a =>Vista 64 system), then Windows Update will complete much quicker, and while there may be some temporary performance loss, it won't be half as bad.

So, just to make sure I understand you correctly mikeymikec, you are seeing this warning on a new install when running Windows Update for the first hundred or so updates?

No, I'm not seeing any warning, and I'm talking about an already up-to-date computer running a Windows Update check.

 

[cubby1223]

All I can say is I have never ran out of memory doing updates or anything else on systems with 2 GB running any OS.

Your mileage could vary.

Of course the computer never stops running, it just slows down greatly at times when Windows Update is checking things out.

 

[escrow4]

Of course! Everyone wants to spend an extra $50 on each computer rather than having that money to pay for other things!

For something you use every day, if you can't put $50 toward it, then why moan when you run out of memory?

 

[postmortemIA]

For something you use every day, if you can't put $50 toward it, then why moan when you run out of memory?

Not everybody has your exact PC model. What if you're on ddr2 on a perfectly capable system and it has 2 slots total? That ram is not cheap anymore.

 

[mikeymikec]

So, back to the topic, is everyone else seeing similar memory usage figures for Windows Update?

 

[Ketchup]

I only saw this when I hit a group of 100+ updates on a fresh install. The process was using very little memory in every other case.

 

[Gunbuster]

Just checked for updates (win 8.1) used maybe 200 meg of ram during the process.

 

[Tatsumakisen]

I've been experiencing the same issue after just having done a fresh install, so decided to look around the web and came across this thread. I've never seen this kind of thing before I have to say, and I've seen hundreds of installs in my time.

edit: It went up to 98% physical memory usage (that's even with 8GB of DDR3 RAM at 1800mhz).

 

[boomerang]

I'm experiencing it right now. I've done a reinstall from the hidden partition on my stepson's messed up laptop. 157 updates have been installing for 4+ hours at this point. WU is using 77% of Physical Memory at this instant. On 141 of 157 and I'm wondering if it is ever going to get done.