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How To Clear RAM Cache in Windows 11 & 10

It’s not often but there might be times when the cache is taking up too much space in your RAM (also known as memory) causing system slowdown and occasional crashes. To fix it, you need to clear the RAM cache manually. Here’s how:

When you open an application on Windows, it loads into your computer’s RAM (Random Access Memory). This allows for fast loading times and seamless switching between applications because RAM is much faster than hard drives or SSDs. Memory caching then further optimizes performance by storing frequently accessed data for quicker retrieval.

However, RAM has limited capacity. When your RAM is full, often due to running many programs or memory-intensive applications (like games or video editors), your computer’s performance can suffer. You might see “Low Memory” warnings, sluggishness, applications freezing or crashing, and in severe cases, even system crashes and data loss. This is especially common on systems with 8GB of RAM or less.

In those cases, you can quickly fix the issue by clearing the RAM cache (memory cache). This tutorial shows you how to do it in Windows 11 and Windows 10. Let’s get started.

Clear RAM Cache by Restarting the System

Restarting (not shutting down) your system is the best way to clear the memory cache in Windows. The reason is that when restarting, Windows either completes or abandons the pending tasks. Since RAM is volatile, restarting clears it completely. Follow the below steps to restart your system.

  1. Press “Windows key + X” to open the Power User menu.
  2. Select the “Shut down or sign out” > “Restart” option.
  3. With that, your computer restarts immediately.

Note: If your system is unresponsive, press the “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” shortcut, click the “Power” icon in the bottom right corner, and select the “Restart” option.

Restart-system-091020

Use RAMMap to Clear Memory Cache

Note: Administrator rights are required to use RAMMap.

  1. Go to this page and click “Download RAMMap“.
  2. Right-click on the download file and select “Extract All“.
  3. Click the “Extract” button.
  4. Open the extracted folder.
  5. Double-click the “RAMMap.exe” file.
  6. Click the “Empty” option on the top nav bar.
  7. Select the following options one after another to clear the memory cache.
    1. Empty Working Sets
    2. Empty System Working Sets
    3. Empty Modified Page List
    4. Empty Standby List
    5. Empty Priority 0 Standby List
  8. Close the RAMMap application once done.
use RAMMap to clear RAM cache

Flush RAM Cache Using a Shortcut

If you don’t want to restart the system or use RAMMap, you can force Windows to process all the idle tasks to clear the RAM cache. To do that, we are going to create a simple desktop shortcut. You can use this shortcut whenever you want to clear the memory cache. Here’s how to do it.

  1. First, right-click on the desktop.
  2. Select “New” and then the “Shortcut” option.
    Create-new-shortcut-091020
  3. Paste “%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks” in the “Location of the item” field.
  4. Click “Next“.
    Idle-processes-clear-memory-cahce-091020
  5. Enter “Complete idle processes” as the name. You can name it anything you want.
  6. Click “Finish“.
    Name-shortcut-091020
  7. Once the shortcut is created, double-click it to free up cached memory.
    Execute-desktop-shortcut-091020

Note: You will not see any progress or confirmation window but rest assured that all the idle processes are completed.

Important Note: Remember, this is not a guaranteed solution. If idle processes aren’t causing the memory issues, you won’t see any improvement. If that happens, restarting the system is the best option.

Wrapping Up — Clearing Memory Cache in Windows 11 and 10

If your RAM is full, you can clear the cache to free up some space. While there are a few methods available—including using RAMMap and creating a desktop shortcut to process idle tasks—restarting your system is the most reliable. Restarting clears the RAM cache for all users, whereas the other options are not guaranteed to work, as they only address memory issues caused by idle processes. If those processes aren’t the problem, the cache won’t be cleared.

Alternatively, you either upgrade your RAM or increase the page file size to deal with low RAM.

If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.

1 thought on “How To Clear RAM Cache in Windows 11 & 10”

  1. Avatar for Eurie Smith

    I am amazed at the gifts you offer. At 85 I still try to master this little beast. With your help, I am moving forward…Thank you.
    EHS

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