Windows Update causing a memory leak.

[TehCookie]

So some backstory, somewhere something happened that deleted my windows update like two years ago. My computer ran fine so I ignored for a while, then I wanted to play a game that would require me to update, so I did some fiddling got it working and ended up with a memory leak. Normally after a restart my computer uses around 16% of my ram (I have 4 gigs). After I updated it was using 30% causing my games which played perfectly fine before to chug.

This is where the problem started. I got fed up with it and finally reformatted the harddrive and reinstalled windows from scratch. Checked my ram, running the same as it did before. I installed my programs I had before, none of them affected the ram usage and my games played so much better. Then I installed the updates and I'm back to 30% when I boot my PC. So obviously there is something extremely wrong with windows update on my fresh clean install of windows and I can't figure out what it is since a reformat didn't fix it.

Can anyone good with computers tell me what's going on and how to get my ram back to the lower levels it had before?

 

[AWAR]

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I'm using Windows 7 with 4 gigs and usually the system itself uses around 36% of it when idle, which I think is pretty normal. What was the particular process that hogged up the ram in your case though? You can check it by pressing ALT-CTRL-DEL and going to task manager/processes. Usually it's svchost.

 

[TehCookie]

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I'm using Windows 7 with 4 gigs and usually the system itself uses around 38% of it when idle, which I think is pretty normal. What was the particular process that hogged up the ram in your case though? You can check it by pressing ALT-CTRL-DEL and going to task manager/processes. Usually it's svchost.

Svchost takes up the most (and the largest went from 80,000kb to 120,000kb) and my .net increased quite a bit with the upgrade as well after the update.

Just wondering, do you keep your computer up to date? I'm wondering if it's my worst fear of putting new software on an old machine so the only cure is physically upgrading.

 

[AWAR]

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I keep my computer up to date, it is possible that memory usage increased with the updates though not updating your windows is not wise (bug wise and security wise). Svchosts are usually in that size, but what about the .net thing you mentioned?

 

[TehCookie]

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I keep my computer up to date, it is possible that memory usage increased with the updates though not updating your windows is not wise (bug wise and security wise). Svchosts are usually in that size, but what about the .net thing you mentioned?

Why is it not wise, my computer runs better without updates and I don't see how the benefits outweigh the cons. I can get rid of a virus bogging down my system, I can't get rid of the system bogging down itself. I've never had it in the size and compared it to every computer I could find and they were running 60,000-80,000 I haven't seen another one besides mine reach 100,000.

As for .net it's a framework needed to run some programs, that appears to be like python or C++. You need it to run some games, windows update usually takes care if it. However upgrading from 3 to 4 uses more memory, like I said running new software on an old machine.

 

[AWAR]

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If you are feeling comfortable running without updates then go ahead. A quick google search reveals that 100mb for svchost is normal though. As for .net framework, for me it doesn't seem to be running in the background.
Usually on fresh windows installs, searchindexer hogs up memory for some time because it makes some adjustments, you can try turning it off. Alternatively you can add another 4gigs of RAM.