While memory leaks isn’t exactly a new issue on the Windows platform, it seems that the memory leak issue with the File Explorer has shipped with live build of Windows 11 that launched earlier today (5th October 2021).
For those unaware, memory leaks is basically an issue that occurs when the PC fails to release the cached memory space that it has been assigned. In other words, it doesn’t free up RAM even after the program that was initially using it has been closed. This, in turn, leads to RAM being horded up, which can cause your computer to slow down or even become unresponsive in extreme cases. Now, the file explorer memory leak that has surfaced a couple of months prior on Windows 11 Insider Preview has managed to make its way to the live build.
To replicate the issue, one can simply go to Task Manager and sort the processes by highest memory usage then spam ‘Win+E.’ After this, file explorer will rise up this list quickly. As of right now, the company has yet to officially acknowledge this issue, so its unknown if a fix is on its way. Restarting Windows File Explorer process manually will free up the cache from within the Task Manager (Via PCGamer).
Users with systems that do not have a lot of RAM or those that do not restart their PCs often could face major issues if this memory leak issue isn’t resolved quickly. So stay tuned for more, as we will provide more updates when additional information is available regarding this matter.
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