August 9, 2026
Cloudy with a chance of backlash
Windows 11's built-in Weather app wastes more than 1 GB of RAM
Fans roast Microsoft as a simple forecast app guzzles memory and serves ads too
TLDR: Reports say Windows 11’s Weather app can use over 1 GB of memory because it behaves more like a web page than a simple built-in tool. Commenters are mocking the bloat, raging about ads in a weather app, and arguing over whether this is sloppy design or overblown panic.
Windows 11’s Weather app is getting absolutely dragged after reports from Windows Latest said it can chew through more than 1 GB of memory just to tell you if it’s raining. The big reason, according to the report, is that this isn’t really a lightweight built-for-Windows app at all — it’s basically a dressed-up web page running inside Microsoft’s own browser-like technology. Translation for normal humans: people expected a tiny forecast tool, and instead got something commenters are treating like a full-blown browser having a secret second job.
The loudest reaction was pure disbelief. One commenter said a properly made weather app should use under 100 MB, not ten times that. Another went straight for the corporate sarcasm: if Microsoft is stuffing several web-powered mini-browsers into one weather app, why not just share one engine across all these apps instead of spawning a whole crowd of them? And then came the ad outrage. Readers were especially irritated that a built-in app for checking the forecast also sneaks in sponsored content. “Really Microsoft?” one user fumed, with another joke practically writing itself: what’s next, ads in the Start menu?
But not everyone was fully in pitchfork mode. One commenter nitpicked the reporting itself, arguing people were mixing up real memory use with reserved space. Another shrugged that memory is much cheaper than it used to be, so maybe this is annoying but not exactly the end times. Still, the overall mood was clear: users can maybe forgive bloat, or ads, but bloat plus ads in a basic weather app? That’s the kind of petty tech drama the internet lives for.
Key Points
- •Windows Latest reported that Windows 11’s built-in Weather app can consume more than 1 GB of RAM.
- •The article says the app is not fully native and instead runs as an MSN Weather web app built on Microsoft’s WebView2 framework.
- •Multiple Chromium-based subprocesses shown in Task Manager are cited as a reason for the app’s high memory usage.
- •The report says the impact may be more noticeable on PCs with 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM, where increased memory pressure could reduce responsiveness.
- •The app includes advertising in its forecast feed, and the findings are described as conflicting with Microsoft’s stated goal of improving Windows 11 efficiency on lower-end hardware.