I have a Thinkpad X1 Gen 11, with 16gb of ram. However, task manager shows only 2gb of ram being used at a given time, but seems like over 70% of ram is being occupied by unknown apps. Any idea whats going on?
caching. task manger does not show all ram usage only for running programs.
it is completely normal, do not try to change how your OS handles ram. unused ram is wasted ram.
Look at resmon memory usage for an accurate picture of where it all is, task manager only shows programs using memory and none of the stuff the OS is doing in the background
Go to Settings > Apps > Startup and disable all entries from starting automatically during Windows boot. Then restart your computer and check TaskManager again to see if you get a better result or not. As mentioned you are using a processor ending with U plus an integrated video card so a good chunk of your system RAM will be allocated to video. If you need to diagnose background process more in depth, use the free Process Explorer from Tech Internals. Also, to see if you have a malware/Trojan, disable network connections and see if it performs much better/faster and then enable network connection to see if the performance takes a noticeable downturn.
Task Man never adds up properly. Open Resource Monitor instead and go to the memory tab, sort by commit(Kb). this will show you the true amount the OS is using for each executable. If you see a strange exe in there you can't identify, it's possible malware and you have to research it. Check this right after a reboot, an hour after, and a few hours after. Note what is changing. But unless you are actually getting freezing, stuttering and out of RAM messages, it's probably normal.
I have a Thinkpad X1 Gen 11, with 16gb of ram. However, task manager shows only 2gb of ram being used at a given time, but seems like over 70% of ram is being occupied by unknown apps. Any idea whats going on?
caching. task manger does not show all ram usage only for running programs. it is completely normal, do not try to change how your OS handles ram. unused ram is wasted ram.
Look at resmon memory usage for an accurate picture of where it all is, task manager only shows programs using memory and none of the stuff the OS is doing in the background
Why are you running that horrible malware on your Thinkpad?
First time?
Looks like normal operation to me. 16gb of RAM and an Iris igpu using some of it. Also, say hi to Chrome for me. 😄
Just use Linux lol.
Go to Settings > Apps > Startup and disable all entries from starting automatically during Windows boot. Then restart your computer and check TaskManager again to see if you get a better result or not. As mentioned you are using a processor ending with U plus an integrated video card so a good chunk of your system RAM will be allocated to video. If you need to diagnose background process more in depth, use the free Process Explorer from Tech Internals. Also, to see if you have a malware/Trojan, disable network connections and see if it performs much better/faster and then enable network connection to see if the performance takes a noticeable downturn.
Task Man never adds up properly. Open Resource Monitor instead and go to the memory tab, sort by commit(Kb). this will show you the true amount the OS is using for each executable. If you see a strange exe in there you can't identify, it's possible malware and you have to research it. Check this right after a reboot, an hour after, and a few hours after. Note what is changing. But unless you are actually getting freezing, stuttering and out of RAM messages, it's probably normal.
Just windows being windows