0

Internet searches on high memory use or high disk use in Windows 10 often reveal threads on a "System and Compressed Memory" process that caused problems for many people in mid- and late-2016 (including at least 5 threads on Superuser). However, I cannot find such a process on my Toshiba laptop upgraded to Win 10. And after checking other Win 10 machines, all I've found currently have only a "System" process--which is annoying since there is so much written on the Internet and there was much to-do (for a time) about the System and Compressed Memory process. I suspect Microsoft has changed the name of this process (back?) to just "System", but I've not seen any mention or confirmation of what happened with this. Can anyone explain?

Secondly, and of more immediate importance to me (if my above suspicion is true) my laptop always shows (0MB) for (Compressed) under Task Manager:Performance:Memory--which is one reason I went on futile safari for the disappeared process. Does anyone know what would cause a machine (Version 1607, Build 14393.567) to do this? All other Win 10 systems I've checked show some, and sometimes quite a bit, Compressed Memory in this location.

Bilateral
  • 3
  • 4
  • Does this system have more memory than the other machines? – Journeyman Geek Jan 09 '17 at 06:51
  • No, it has 4MB. Other machines I've checked (people I've asked) have more, one the same. – Bilateral Jan 09 '17 at 06:52
  • Can you really not see it? You have no *System and Compressed Memory* and at the same time no amount of your memory is compressed. This is clearly effect and cause (respectively). You will have a *System and Compressed Memory* if and when you have compressed memory. –  Jan 09 '17 at 07:19
  • Thanks for reply: Does _your_ machine have such a process? I just checked again a Win 10 desktop we have--has 12 GB memory--shows _System_ process and _System interrupt_ process, but no _System and Compressed Memory_ process. Also shows _In use (Compressed) 5 GB (731 MB)_. I suspect compressed memory will be listed under _System_ process. Been reading about _Process Hacker_ or _Explorer_ to download and check this. – Bilateral Jan 09 '17 at 07:52
  • Possible duplicate of [Where did the "compressed memory" go?](http://superuser.com/questions/1160079/where-did-the-compressed-memory-go) – magicandre1981 Jan 09 '17 at 17:14
  • @magicandre1981 Yes, thanks, that helps, but this is a little different. The issue is somewhat buried in that question--It's very confusing doing searches and trying to find out what happened with this. It is the *PROCESS* that is missing when people look for it. You wrote in http://superuser.com/questions/952141/windows-10-system-process-taking-massive-amounts-of-ram/952142#952142 "In the Window 10 Anniversary Update...Microsoft extracted the Memory Compression into an own entry in task manager to no longer confuse users why SYSTEM has such a large memory usage." – Bilateral Jan 09 '17 at 19:49
  • @magicandre1981 ...But there is little explanation now of how and why they have again confused the unconfusion. ...It's confused by the difficulty of dealing with dated information. – Bilateral Jan 09 '17 at 19:50

1 Answers1

3

If you want to test if Windows 10 uses memory compression or not, start powershell as admin

enter image description here

and run Get-MMAgent.

This shows if memory compression works or not:

enter image description here

Here it is activated. The memory compression is now shown in a pseudo process called Memory Compression. Run ProcessHacker to see it.

enter image description here

magicandre1981
  • 97,301
  • 30
  • 179
  • 245
  • Yes, thanks! Helps a lot. Mine all show as FALSE --Superfetch is currently disabled, but I think same was true of compressed memory when it wasn't. What do I do to enable Compressed Memory? – Bilateral Jan 09 '17 at 20:00
  • I enabled Superfetch and started it--All that were FALSE now show TRUE in Powershell--looks like yours. ...Then,...after a few minutes, I am starting to show compressed memory. Thanks! But what does CM have to do with Superfetch? Are they linked? – Bilateral Jan 09 '17 at 20:27
  • MS removed the memory compression entry in 14393, in the preview builds it was there. use processexplorer/hacker to see it. Yes, it looks like Superfetch must be running before the MemoryCompression can be used. – magicandre1981 Jan 10 '17 at 16:03
  • Thanks again. Yes, that's the same build that I have. – Bilateral Jan 11 '17 at 05:33
  • ok, if my reply answer your question, mark it as answer: http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/5235 – magicandre1981 Jan 11 '17 at 16:08