Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Design and Research on Windows, Marcus Ash, has commented on the company's ongoing effort to modernize and reduce the memory footprint of Windows 11 for devices with low amounts of RAM.

Last week, Windows chief Pavan Davuluri confirmed the motion to optimize performance on Windows 11 for devices with 8GB RAM, and Marcus Ash has now broken down just how the company is planning to go about doing that.

Ash confirms that Microsoft is taking its work to optimize the OS seriously. It's looking at all aspects of Windows from top to bottom to ensure performance is optimized at every step.

"This is something we've learned especially over the last few months with the effort we've done on quality. We have to look at these as full-stack challenges, from the design of the pixels all the way down to the kernel scheduler and drivers," Ash told us in an interview on the Windows Central Podcast. "We know that given the expectations customers are going to have, we have a chance to do better. We have a chance to do things that get ahead of where we know customers are going to go in terms of their expectations on the apps they run, and the responsiveness of those apps."

The process is a group effort, one that incorporates all the teams building software and experiences inside and on top of Windows 11. "We get teams together across Microsoft, we get our own team together, we instrument the various customer jobs that people want to run, and then we're relentless at: how do we reduce the memory footprint?"

Ash continues: "How do we think about preload, and how long something should stay preloaded so that we can release things when you're not using the app as much, when we really need to reduce more system memory? We think about the design and just making sure that when people get under stressful memory conditions, how do we make it very easy for them to decide what they don't want to run anymore so that we can relieve some of that pressure?"

It's clear that Microsoft views the ongoing memory pricing crisis and competition from the MacBook Neo as driving forces for optimizing Windows 11 for devices with 8GB RAM. The company has confirmed that it's looking to begin shipping these memory and performance optimizations before the end of the year.

Our interview with Marcus Ash touches on more topics, including modernizing legacy UIs, how WebView2 fits in, and more on the Windows Central Podcast. So give the episode a watch on our YouTube today at 2PM ET if you want to hear more from Marcus Ash.

The Windows Central Podcast is sponsored by Surfshark VPN. Unlimited devices, access your content from anywhere, and auto-block malware on Windows, Edge, and other platforms from $2.50/mo, with 4 months extra FREE. Register today!

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central and has been with the site since 2016. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows, Surface, and hardware. He's also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter and Threads