Windows 11's built-in Weather app wastes more than 1 GB of RAM

Post by jeroenhd » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 7:48 AM UTC

gerdesj wrote: post #297

SBArbeit wrote: post #120

Easy workaround for this: 1. Install uBlock Origin in Edge. 2. Start Edge, browse to MSN Weather. 3. Click the "Add an Application" button in the address bar to get a Start Menu icon for the page. 4. Delete the in-box Weather app icon. Now you get the same Weather app in about 130MB of RAM, with no ads. It's not as nice as a native app, of course, but it's 1000% better than the useless ads and MSN feed that you can't…

"Now you get the same Weather app in about 130MB of RAM" What a wonderful world we have created where the fix for a 1GB RAM guzzler reduces it to a mere 130MB. Now I could start off with my old ZX80 or even my C64 (which is doing fine, thanks, and sports a USB "drive" next to its Quickshot II) but I think my first 80486 is a realistic comparison. That ran at 25MHz, had a maths co-pro in it had 4MB RAM, a 20MB IDE HDD…

    Weather:
     Message: Error: Your access to this resource has been blocked. Automated
       requests or excessive use are not permitted. This is clearly stated in
       both the help menu and man page. If you want a CLI weather tool for
       routine use, try wttr.in, or use a weather widget. Remember, you never
       had a "right" to this feature, it was just a little easter egg, mostly
       for sys admins, which has instead been consistently abused. If you want
       to know your local weather, look out your window, there it is.

Post by norman784 » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 8:06 AM UTC

ndriscoll wrote: post #37

My gaming PC that I built in January 2006 that IIRC I used to simultaneously run Battlefield 2, Trillian, Xfire, Thunderbird, and Winamp with a 1680x1050 monitor had 1 GB of total system RAM.

Post by gruturo » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 8:09 AM UTC

smileybarry wrote: post #417

gruturo wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't take away at all from the complete absurdity of this level of bloat. How is it not 450kB? Fine, a few high res icons and multi language support, let's make it 4MB, because to do it in 1 would take skilled coders.

> That doesn't take away at all from the complete absurdity of this level of bloat. When the article compares that figure directly to macOS Weather.app's 250MB usage, yes it does. It brings the sensationalist comparison down from "5x" to 2x. Then you can question why both platforms take 250-450MB of RAM for a weather app, instead of just repeating the "windows so bloated" circle again and again.

Post by vor_ » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 8:28 AM UTC

brokenmachine wrote: post #376

asdfman123 wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a bunch of other requirements you need to meet and no one cares about RAM consumption. So you do it the most time efficient way, not the most memory efficient. Before you scorn, doing it the opposite way, taking more to use less memory, makes you less promotable, not more.

And this is why Windows will have it's lunch eaten by Linux.

Post by dominicrose » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 8:34 AM UTC