When you use up all of the available RAM on your computer, you may notice that your device struggles to complete tasks. If you find that your computer’s applications are frequently crashing and it takes longer to do simple tasks, then you might be wondering how to free up RAM on your computer.

What is RAM?

Your computer’s Random Access Memory (RAM) is stored on a memory chip that is typically found on the motherboard. This where your computer stores short term data. RAM is the hub of storage for all active and running programs and processes. Your computer uses the information it has stored in RAM to complete tasks while simultaneously receiving and performing other functions.

When you use up all of the available RAM memory, your computer’s performance can slow down because it doesn’t have the storage required to complete its tasks. When you clear RAM space, it gives your computer the capability to carry out tasks. Depending on your computer, there are a few different ways you can free up RAM space.

How to Make the Most of Your RAM

RAM Saver Control Panel is a free RAM cleaner for Windows that lets you clean RAM and enhances the performance of your PC. Using this freeware, you can keep an eye on apps/software running in background and know which app/software is consuming how much RAM. Like Windows’ default Task Manager, it also lets you kill running processes. May 01, 2020 Memory leaks due to a poorly coded game or program can suck up your RAM over time until you experience a crash. A RAM cleaner for Windows 10 can mitigate this, but it won’t fix the root cause.

It can be easy to use up your RAM because it supports so many functions. Before you start removing programs from your computer, try these quick fixes to free up RAM space.

Restart Your Computer

The first thing you can try to free up RAM is restarting your computer. When you restart or turn off your computer, all of your RAM (stored data) will be wiped clean and programs will be rebooted. This can potentially clear out some processes and programs that are running behind the scenes, taking up your RAM storage.

Update Your Software

It’s important to be running the most updated versions of your computer software and applications. Older renditions of software and apps can take more memory to process, causing your computer to slow down.

Try a Different Browser

Something else you can try is changing browsers, as some have been known to use more data than others. If you’re not already, try using a browser like Chrome or Firefox, which are typically good browsers for memory management.

Clear Your Cache

If you still find yourself short on RAM, the next option is to try deleting your cache. Sometimes your cache can take up a lot of space because it uses RAM for memory functions. The cache holds on to information that your computer uses to reload pages it has seen before rather than downloading them again. This can save you time when browsing, but if you are short on RAM, it’s something you can sacrifice with minimal effect.

Remove Browser Extensions

Many of your daily work and home computer operations have been made easy by the use of browser extensions. However, they also require memory, so you might want to think about disabling or removing your extensions.

5 Ways to Free up RAM on Windows 10

If you are still having trouble freeing up your RAM storage, you might have too many programs and applications without even knowing. Try these five ways to free up RAM storage for Windows 10 computers.

1. Track Memory and Clean Up Processes

You should monitor your computer RAM usage so that you don’t deplete your supply before you really need it. To monitor your computer’s memory, you can navigate to the task manager to check the processes. This is where you’ll be able to see which programs are running and what kind of space they are taking up.

To locate your computer memory:

1. Hold the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys to open the Task Manager.
2. Select the “Processes” tab.
3. Click the “Memory” column to view how much space they are taking up.

You can now see which of your programs are taking up the most time and space on your computer. If you find anything suspicious eating up your memory, you should delete programs you don’t need or use.

2. Disable Startup Programs You Don’t Need

If you have used your computer for at least a few years, then you have probably downloaded a fair amount of software that you either forgot about or no longer use. After the processes tab tells you which programs use the most space, you will want to maneuver to the startup tab to stop those you no longer need.

To disable startup programs:

1. Select the “Startup” tab from the Task Manager.
2. Click “Startup impact” to organize the programs from high to low usage.
3. Right-click to disable any programs that you don’t need.

Startup programs are those that activate when your computer is booted up. When these programs start, each one takes up a little bit of RAM in the background without your consent. After a while, all of the software and programs can add up. Be sure that the ones that aren’t needed are disabled or removed.

3. Stop Running Background Apps

The next items that could be taking up RAM are your applications that are set to automatically run in the background. You may have used your computer for years before noticing some of these apps taking up your RAM storage. This can quickly exhaust your memory, battery, and data bandwidth.

Ram Cleanup Windows 10

To stop background apps:

1. Go to computer settings.
2. Click the “Privacy” category.
3. Scroll down the panel on the left side to “Background Apps.”
4. Turn off any apps you do not use.

Applications are often automatically set to run in the background of your device. This enables them to display notifications and update their software automatically. By turning this off on apps you don’t use, you can save RAM storage.

4. Clear Page File When Shutting Down

When you restart your computer, your page files don’t get cleared or reset because unlike RAM, they get stored on the hard drive. So, when RAM gets stored on-page files it does not get cleared with the rest at shutdown.

Clearing page files on your hard drive will clear any RAM it has stored and help keep your computer running efficiently. You can set this to automatically clear when your computer shuts down, just like the RAM. Do this by opening the Registry Editor:

1. Type “Registry Editor” into the start menu search bar.
2. Click “Yes” to allow Registry Editor to make changes to your device.
3. On the left, scroll to and select “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.”
4. Scroll to select “SYSTEM.”
5. Select “CurrentControlSet.”
6. Find and select “Control.”
7. Scroll to select “Session Manager.”
8. Look for and choose “Memory Management.”
9. Select “ClearPageFileAtShutdown.”
10. Enter the number “1” under the value data and hit OK.

5. Reduce Visual Effects

With improving technologies, there are many more possibilities for computer effects and visuals. For example, you can turn off the animations for apps and icons that use storage for unnecessary effects. If you seem to be running low on RAM storage, there are some effects you can shelve until you free up more memory.

To access your computer’s visual effects:

1. Open your File Explorer.
2. Right-click on “This PC” on the left-side panel to select properties.
3. Click “Advanced system settings” on the left.
4. Select the “Advanced” tab.
5. Choose settings under the “Performance” category.
6. Change to “Adjust for best performance.”

This setting will disable all animated features on your computer. This will create more storage for you, but limit your computer’s aesthetics significantly. However, you can also customize which visual effects your computer will perform to your preferences in the same tab.

5 Ways to Free up RAM on Mac

For Mac users, there are many convenient tools to monitor and free up RAM storage on your computer.

1. Fix the Finder (Close Finder Windows Too)

When you open a new window in the finder, the data each window displays gets stored as RAM. Adjusting the finder preferences can make your folders open in tabs rather than new finder windows.

To open your Finder Preferences:

1. Click “Finder” in the top left of your screen.
2. Right-click on “Preferences” from the dropdown options.
3. Check to Open folders in tabs instead of new windows.

There is another way to clear RAM storage by merging your Finder windows. To do this you will select the “Window” dropdown rather than Finder. From there you will select “Merge All Windows” to put all your Finder windows into one place. This will save you on storage as well as declutter your desktop.

2. Check Activity Monitor

To keep track of your RAM usage on Mac you can check the Activity Monitor, which shows you how much memory is being used and what is using it. Utilize the Activity Monitor to determine which apps take up most of your storage. Remove the ones you no longer use.

To Check the Activity Monitor:

1. Search “Activity Monitor” in the spotlight search bar (command + space).
2. Click on the “Memory” tab.
3. Remove unwanted applications.

3. Check CPU Usage

You can also use the Activity Monitor app to check your CPU health and usage. CPU is your Central Processing Unit, and it carries out instructions from the computer software information stored as RAM.

To monitor your CPU, just select the “CPU” tab in front of the memory tab. This is where you can see if any apps take more processing power than others.

4. Clean-Up Programs and Applications

If you are looking to keep a consistently healthy amount of RAM storage, then you will want to keep your computer clean and organized. A cluttered desktop is going to use storage much faster because macOS views each desktop icon as an active window. Even if you don’t think you can organize your files, putting everything into one general folder can free up a lot of RAM.

5. Free up Disk Space

If you find that your RAM is completely full, but you’re still in need of storage, you can use free space on your Mac’s drive called virtual memory. This extra storage is found on Mac computer’s hard drives so that you can continue running apps. The function is always on, however to use virtual memory you will need to be sure you have driver space available to swap.

Additional Ways to Free up RAM on Windows or Mac

The best thing to do is to be proactive with your computer’s RAM so that you don’t have to worry about freeing up space. Use these additional ways to keep your RAM storage free.

Install a Memory/RAM Cleaner

If you find that you do not have the time, or you just cannot manage to organize your computer, there are memory cleaner apps to help you disinfect your computer. Many of these cleaners have special features for removing apps or extensions and allow users to manage their startup programs.

Increase RAM

You can always add more RAM to your computer if you have a lot of information you don’t want to delete. Buying and installing RAM is easy to do for a desktop computer, but can be troublesome for laptops. Be sure that you invest in the correct type of RAM for your computer as well as the correct amount for your specific storage needs.

Scan for Virus and Malware

When you download any software programs or extensions to your computer there is the chance they could have a virus or malware attached. Once you have malware on your computer, it can steal both your information and your RAM space. To prevent picking up any malware or viruses try using Panda Security antivirus to protect your computer and memory.

Now is the time to stop file hoarding. Many of the files on your computer are taking up RAM space without you realizing it. Now you know how to safely declutter your computer of these unused files and how to free up RAM so your computer runs more efficiently.

Sources: ComputerHope | WindowsCentral | HelloTech | DigitalTrends

Ram Cleanup Command

Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Symptoms

After you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2013/2016/Office 365, you experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• The computer uses more memory when you open multiple Microsoft Excel 2013 workbooks, save Excel workbooks, or make calculations in Excel workbooks.

• You can no longer open as many Excel workbooks in the same instance as you could before you upgraded to Excel 2013/2016.

• When you insert columns in an Excel workbook, you receive an error about available memory.

• When you are working with an Excel spreadsheet, you receive the following error message:

Cause

Starting in Excel 2013, improvements were made that require more system resources than earlier versions required. This article identifies areas in Excel workbooks that use lots of memory and describes how you can make your workbook files work more efficiently.

For more information about the changes that we made in Excel 2013, see Memory Usage in the 32-bit edition of Excel 2013.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, use the following methods in the order in which they are presented. If the one of these methods does not help, move on to the next method.

Note

Many Excel workbooks have several issues that can problems. After you eliminate these issues, your workbook will run more smoothly.

Formatting considerations

Formatting can cause Excel workbooks to become so large that they do not work correctly. Frequently, Excel hangs or crashes because of formatting issues.

Method 1: Eliminate excessive formatting

Excessive formatting in an Excel workbook can cause the file to grow and can cause poor performance. Formatting would be considered excessive if you formatted whole columns or rows with color or borders. This problem also occurs when formatting requires data to be copied or imported from webpages or databases. To eliminate excess formatting, use the format cleaner add-in that is available in Clean excess cell formatting on a worksheet.

If you continue to experience issues after you eliminate excess formatting, move on to method 2.

Method 2: Remove unused styles

You can use styles to standardize the formats that you use throughout workbooks. When cells are copied from one workbook to another, their styles are also copied. These styles continue to make the file grow and may eventually cause the 'Too many different cell formats' error message in Excel when you save back to older file versions.

Many utilities are available that remove unused styles. As long as you are using an XML-based Excel workbook (that is, an .xlsx file or an. xlsm file), you can use the style cleaner tool. You can find this tool here.

If you continue to experience issues after you remove any unused styles, move on to method 3.

Method 3: Remove shapes

Adding lots of shapes in a spreadsheet also requires lots of memory. A shape is defined as any object that sits on the Excel grid. Some examples are as follows:

• Charts
• Drawing shapes
• Comments
• Clip art
• SmartArt
• Pictures
• WordArt

Frequently, these objects are copied from webpages or other worksheets and are hidden or are sitting on one another. Frequently, the user is unaware that they are present.

To check for shapes, follow these steps:

1. On the Home Ribbon, click Find and Select, and then click Selection Pane.
2. Click The Shapes on this Sheet. Shapes are displayed in the list.
3. Remove any unwanted shapes. (The eye icon indicates whether the shape is visible.)
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each worksheet.

If you continue to experience issues after you remove shapes, you should examine considerations that are not related to formatting.

Method 4: Remove conditional formatting

Conditional formatting can cause the file to grow. This occurs when the conditional formatting in the file is corrupted. You can remove the conditional formatting, as a test to see if the problem is with corruption in the formatting. To remove conditional formatting, follow these steps:

1. Save a backup of the file.
2. On the Home Ribbon, click Conditional Formatting.
3. Clear rules from the whole worksheet.
4. Follow steps 2 and 3 for each worksheet in the workbook.
5. Save the workbook by using a different name.
6. See if the problem is resolved.

If removing conditional formatting resolves the issue, you can open the original workbook, remove conditional formatting, and then reapply it.

Problem remains?

If none of these methods work, you may consider moving to a 64-bit version of Excel, breaking your problem workbook into different workbooks, or contacting Support for additional troubleshooting.

Calculation considerations

In addition to formatting, calculations can also cause crashing and hanging in Excel.

Method 1: Open the workbook in the latest version of Excel

Opening an Excel workbook for the first time in a new version of Excel may take a long time if the workbook contains lots of calculations. To open the workbook for the first time, Excel has to recalculate the workbook and verify the values in the workbook. For more information, see the following articles:

If the file continues to open slowly after Excel recalculates the file completely and you save the file, move on to method 2.

Method 2: Formulas

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Look through your workbook and examine the kinds of formulas that you are using. Some formulas take lots of memory. These include the following array formulas:

• LOOKUP
• INDIRECT
• OFFSETS
• INDEX
• MATCH

It's fine to use them. However, be aware of the ranges that you are referencing.

Formulas that reference whole columns could cause poor performance in .xlsx files. The grid size grew from 65,536 rows to 1,048,576 rows and from 256 (IV) columns to 16,384 (XFD) columns. A popular way to create formulas, although not a best practice, was to reference whole columns. If you were referencing just one column in the old version, you were including only 65,536 cells. In the new version, you're referencing more than 1 million columns.

Assume that you have the following VLOOKUP:

In Excel 2003 and earlier versions, this VLOOKUP was referencing a whole row that included only 655,560 cells (10 columns x 65,536 rows). However, with the new, larger grid, the same formula references almost 10.5 million cells (10 columns x 1,048,576 rows = 10,485,760).

This is fixed in Office 2016/365 version 1708 16.0.8431.2079 and later. For information on how to update Office, please see Install Office updates.

For earlier versions of Office you may need to reconstruct your formulas to reference only those cells that are required for your formulas.

Note

Check your defined names to make sure that you don't have other formulas that reference whole columns or rows.

Note

This scenario will also occur if you use whole rows.

If you continue experience issues after you change your formulas to refer only to cells that are being used, move on to method 3.

Method 3: Calculating across workbooks

Limit the formulas that are doing the calculations across workbooks. This is important for two reasons:

• You are trying to open the file over the network.
• Excel is trying to calculate large amounts of data.

Instead of doing calculations across networks, contain the formula in one workbook, and then create a simple link from one workbook to another.

If you continue to experience the issue after you change your formulas to refer only to cells instead of calculating across workbooks, move on to method 4.

Method 4: Volatile functions

Limit the use of the volatile functions in a workbook. You do not have to have hundreds of cells that use the TODAY or NOW function. If you have to have the current date and time in your spreadsheet, use the function one time, and then reference the function through a defined name of a link.

If you continue to experience the issue after you limit your volatile formulas, move on to method 5.

Method 5: Array formulas

Array formulas are powerful. But they must be used correctly. It is important not to add more cells to your array than you must have. When a cell in your array has a formula that requires calculation, calculation occurs for all cells that are referenced in that formula.

How To Free Up Computer Memory

For more information about how arrays work, please see Excel 2010 Performance: Tips for Optimizing Performance Obstructions.

If you continue to experience the issue after you update your array formulas, move on to method 6.

Method 6: Defined names

Defined names are used to reference cells and formulas throughout the workbook to add a 'friendly name' to your formulas. You should check for any defined names that link to other workbooks or temporary Internet files. Typically, these links are unnecessary and slow down the opening of an Excel workbook.

You can use the Name Manager tool to view hidden defined names that you can't see in the Excel interface. This tool enables you to view and delete the defined names that you don't need.

If Excel continues to crash and hang after you remove any unnecessary defined names, move on to method 7.

Method 7: Links and hyperlinks

Excel's power is in its ability to bring in live data from other spreadsheets. Take an inventory of the file and the external files to which it is linking. Excel doesn't have a limit on how many Excel workbooks can be linked, although there are several issues that you can encounter. Test the file without the links to determine whether the issue is in this file or in one of the linked files.

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Moving on

These are the most common issues that cause hanging and crashing in Excel. If you are still experiencing crashing and hanging in Excel, you should consider opening a support ticket with Microsoft.

More Information

If none of these methods made a difference, you should consider either moving to a 64-bit version of Excel or breaking your problem workbook into different workbooks.