System cache shows gigabytes and memory feels tight
Windows file cache fills free memory aggressively and releases under pressure. Healthy by design, but a standby-list bug occasionally holds onto it.
Try this first
- 1Open Resource Monitor, Memory tab, and look at Standby versus Free
- 2If Standby is huge and apps are page-faulting: that is the known issue
- 3Update chipset and storage drivers to the latest
- 4Use EmptyStandbyList only as a temporary workaround
When to bring us in
For persistent standby bloat: take an ETW trace and analyze which driver holds the pages.
See also
- My laptop is suddenly slowThree main suspects: a runaway background process, near-full disk, or a Windows update in progress.
- One specific application is slow for everyoneIf an app is slow for one person: local. For everyone at once: server side or vendor side.
- Opening files from the file server takes minutesOften the server itself is fine and the issue is network routing or stalling DNS resolution.
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