Bad Win 10 Memory Management?

Disclaimers: Yes, I'm a n00btard and, no, I don't know why I'm doing it like that, and yes, I should probably kill myself and, no, you can't have my sister or mom (she's dead).

That said, my comp has been running kind of rough and sometimes locking up, so I checked performance noticed that Win 10 is taking up 70% of system memory even when idle. Wait, wut? With only 8GB, that doesn't leave much for gaming. I know these days 16GB is prob a better minimum, but still. I don't see any one thread hogging RAM, Windows and other processes are just nickel and dime-ing memory to death with a lonnnnnnnng list of threads that are taking 40mb here 20mb there, etc.

I thought Win 10 was supposed to be optimized for tablets and other systems that don't need gigs of memory. Is that not true? If not, is there anything I can do to optimize?

I know my build is getting ancient (i7-4790K, 970), so I fully understand that I'm a "looser" and it's time to upgrade, but wondering if adding more RAM would buy me a little time if Win 10 can't be made to play nicer with what I have. I game at only 1920x1080, so I don't need uber power.

Thanks....

@attirex: Step 1: Disable Services that are not needed. http://www.pcerror-fix.com/windows-10-services-to-disable-for-gaming

Step 2: Follow This Tutorial to Debloat Windows 10: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pJTCwSX9Ym8

Step 3: Disable All Windows Effects https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-system-visual-effects-boost-performance-windows-10?amp

Step 4: Type %Temp% using Run, and delete all the files (Literally)

Step 5: Disable Superfetch go to services, and look for sysmain. Stop it then disable it.

Step 6: Download CCleaner, and follow tutorial

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DL0SVQeai5OA&ved=2ahUKEwjJ347Q69bmAhXOvp4KHdceAe8Qo7QBMAJ6BAgAEAY&usg=AOvVaw3dlXFZpfIz6WGyTWpLeA8c

Step 7: Virtual Memory Management Listen Closely https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/how-to-manage-virtual-memory-pagefile-windows-10,36929.html

Step 8: Download MalwareBytes, and run threat scan.

Step 9: Find out what is using a lot of memory, and look it up online to fix it.

That's about it, I hope this helps😊

SnPzFresh-

Lol, thanks so much!

I'll try a few things on your list and see if it helps (or blows up my system completely?).

Guess I was hoping that Win 10 had a big red "FIX MEMORY PROBLEMS" button, but apparently not.

@attirex: no it won't blow anything, i've done it myself. Your welcome im glad i could be of assistance

Quick follow-up: On a whim, I bought and installed more RAM and was shocked to see my system gobbling up 80% of 24GB (!).

After some desperate Googling around (which I should have done first), I tried updating the Killer Network drivers and....fixed. System now uses about 18% at idle.

Windows and drivers....good to see that 20-something years later, they're still a problem. Thanks, Obama.

@attirex: That's awesome! I'm so glad you fixed it. Have a great day, sir!

SnPzFresh-

You can have a billion gigs of RAM and if you have a memory leak, it's going to take up a billion gigs of RAM. I know web browsers, all of them whether it's Firefox, Chrome, Edge, or a derivative of any of them can take up many gigs of ram unnecessarily. I've pretty much quit gaming with a web browser open because even the 16gb of RAM I have now will be consumed in short order by either web browser.

Yep. If I leave Safari open on my Mac Mini, it slowly but surely consumes almost 75% of RAM. Drives me nuts.

NoScript works on Firefox. Brave has similar script blockers built in that work about as well. I just need to remember to stop turning them off. But these script blockers should prevent browsers from taking all your RAM.