Windows 11: creating a STANDARD USER creates problems with anomalous RAM occupation and NON-PAGED POOL

Question

Good evening, I am having problems with Windows 11 regarding the use of a second USER with a STANDARD ACCOUNT.

On my PC I have an administrator user associated with a Microsoft account which works perfectly.

I added another STANDARD USER without associating a Microsoft account with it.

When I log in to the PC with this STANDARD USER, it starts to take up a lot of RAM memory (even if I don't launch any applications) and at the same time the NON-PAGED POOL occupation also increases a lot.

If I simply leave the computer on for 4/5 hours, all 32GB of RAM will be saturated until the PC is unusable.

The only way to solve the problem is to shut down the PC from the ADMINISTRATOR user with the "shutdown -s -t 1" command and use only the ADMINISTRATOR USER.

I tried to use the PC with the ADMINISTRATOR user for 2 days and the RAM memory is never occupied beyond 7GB even by launching several applications at the same time, in this way the PC works perfectly!

In summary, the problems only occur on the STANDARD user, so I tried to delete that USER and recreate it and I returned to the Problem.

I wanted to understand if I'm doing something wrong or if Windows 11 doesn't manage a second STANDARD USER?

Answer 1

Hello Armando,

I'm Hruthik, a student from Microsoft. Sorry for the inconvenience caused by the Windows. There might be a few reasons behind this.

You would have turned off some Startup apps in your Admin Account but not in the newly created Standard Account. So whenever you log on to your Standard User Account, the startup-enabled apps will automatically start running in the background, resulting in high memory usage.

Disable the unnecessary startup apps by using the Task Manager to solve this.

Open the Task Manager in the following ways:

1. Press CRTL+SHIFT+ESC
2. or Search in Windows
3. or Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and Click on the Task Manager

Once the Task Manager is opened successfully, you will notice several tabs on the left side of the window. Click Startup Apps and disable the unnecessary apps. Then finish it by restarting your windows.

Here is a Screenshot of the Window:

Keep an eye on your Task Manager to know which app/service uses the amount of memory.

I hope you find this information useful. Let me know if this works. Feel free to approach and ask your queries.

Thank You,

Hruthik B

Answer 2

Hi Hruthik, 
I did the checks you asked me to do, I don't seem to see anything abnormal.
I have attached some images with a comparison of the two USERS.
On the left ADMINISTRATOR user on the right STANDARD user.

As you can see, after only 20 minutes the STANDARD user takes up a lot of memory and if a few hours pass it crashes the computer.
(note the difference in NON-PAGED POOL occupancy)


I can't figure out which process is taking up so much memory.

Answer 3

Hello Armando,

Thanks for getting back. I reviewed your screenshots. Yes, they don't seem unusual.

Try using PC Manager (by Microsoft)

https://pcmanager.microsoft.com/en-us

It helps to clear Temporary Files and reduce memory usage.

I have a question on your issue,

Do you Log out completely from your Admin Account to use the Standard Account or opt for the Switch user option to access your Standard account? Because the Switch user option locks your account instead of logging out. This leads to your computer running your Administrator Account programs in the background.

Answer 4

Hi Hruthik, STANDARD user has just been created there are no temporary files to delete from that user.

When I have to switch from the ADMINISTRATOR user to the STANDARD user, I always LOG OUT and then log in to the STANDARD user.

Can you also create a STANDARD user on your Windows 11 (without associating a Microsoft account)? and check if you have the same problem? I would like to understand what process causes the memory occupation to increase so much..

Answer 5

Hello, I've been fighting this problem for 2 days.

AND FINALLY, I GOT THE ANSWER!!!

In my case and probably yours too it's Asus Armoury Crate.

1. Use deintlation tool for Armoury Crate, don't restart.
2. Shut down PC with 'Shift' button.
3. Turn on, from task manager kill rest asus process started with letter 'A' ;)
4. Then fast, before this process turns on again delete the whole 'ASUS' folders from 'Program Files' and PFx86
5. Delete ASUS folders from 'ProgramData' and 'AppData'.
6. Again shut down PC with 'Shift' button
7. Viola, now I don't have this issue

Of course there still problem with some updates ana Aura but for now we can use PC normally

Best regards

Bartosz K.