By Chris Hoffman
Publication Date: 2026-11-04 15:00:00
Microsoft announced major memory efficiency improvements to Windows 11 this week, and these upgrades should already be live on your PC. I spoke with Microsoft’s Marcus Ash, corporate vice president for design and research for Windows + Devices, and Klaus Diaconu, who leads the Windows Fundamentals team, about these changes, and after some testing, I can confirm that the OS works better on 8GB of RAM than it did just a few months ago. Meanwhile, the Edge browser now launches more quickly, and Google Chrome and other apps could follow suit.
In less exciting news, Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees, which is over 25% of its global workforce. It’s a massive reduction in jobs at a time when the company is increasingly profitable.
Read on for an inside look at improvements to Windows 11’s memory efficiency, an intriguing update to Edge, and the details on Microsoft’s largest-ever attempted reduction in its workforce. I also answer a…