Windows 7: High Memory usage in svchost with Windows Update

Hello all, I just noticed something and wanted to be sure or see if this is normal. When Windows Update checks for updates, svchost will jump up to ~500MB in usage, or after updates have been installed. It will stay there. If just checking for updates, but I don't install any, it will drop down to ~400MB, but no lower than that. Now, if I go into services and disable the Windows Update service, the memory usage drops from wherever it was at, down to ~22MB. What's with this, or is it just normal?

Hello and welcome TGMP I am not real sure as to your concerns nor am I sure if the RAM usage is unusual - to me having that much on board if it doesn't cause any issues with what you are doing then I would just forget about it.
To be honest I have never checked this on any of my machines RAM usage using anything much at all.

Nice set up by the way

That memory usage does seem high. But having 16 GB RAM is also unusual. When available memory is plentiful, as would seem likely here, the memory manager will be very free in giving it to processes. This is a good thing. Memory was meant to be used, not sit idle. In the event that available memory becomes short the memory manager will trim the usage of these processes to meet the demand. With 16 GB RAM I wouldn't expect that to happen very often.

I see nothing to be concerned about.

Also understand that memory management in a modern OS is vastly complex, far beyond what most people imagine.

Pretty much the same as I was thinking LM only I am a bit more simpler than you LOL!!

And it's not restricted to machines with 16GB RAM. For computers with 4GB or less RAM it does actually cause performance issues.

On new builds with Windows 7 and 16GB RAM I have seen this SVCHost use 3GB+ of RAM while doing its initial 163 updates.

So it's nothing to worry about, but I do find it annoying the MS have just made the assumption that everyone has machines with 16GB of RAM these days and have changed Windows update's memory usage accordingly.

If anyone knows a way to stop Windows Update hogging so much RAM, I would like to hear it.

I think it depends on RAM. Like the previous posts mentioned, Windows 7 or later and even OS X are takes advantage of RAM (e.g. svchost.exe - windows update service) to make the tasks faster. Try updating a system with 150+ updates on one go with 2 GB RAM. Svchost will surely use less RAM but the same task takes longer than the one using 3 GB out of 16 GB physical RAM capacity.

One way to reduce the RAM usage on svchost windows update service is to set the updates to never. Then you go check it once a month every Tuesday at the 2nd week of the month since that's the day MS publish their updates.

What I do is simple.
I have done it on my system from 4gig to 32gig.
Just let Windows 7 manage the memory. It know what it is doing unlike XP.

If Windows 7 does this or that with memory and you start doing things on your system Windows 7 will pick that up faster than us humans and make adjustment.

If one is going to watch their memory kb by kb or mb by mb your going to drive yourself nuts.

Windows 7 also like to be rebooted now and again to get a fresh start with memory management.

Just so every body knows. Rebooting a computer give no pain to the owner of the computer.

This is my memory before and after a reboot.
Before is the top picture.

Now after the reboot Windows will monitor the system and make adjustment as needed and all works well.
The after reboot picture will start looking like the before reboot picture as Windows 7 makes need adjustment.

It is important to understand that process memory usage us HIGHLY dynamic, determined primarily by need and availability. Usage of an individual process can vary over a short period of time by a factor of 100 or more. This usage is always under the control of the system memory manager with the goal of maximizing overall system performance. There is no provision made for the user to override or control this. System services do not have any special privileges here, all processes being on a level playing field. There is no priority system whereby some processes are more important than others. The process priority as shown in Task Manager is for other purposes and has nothing to do with memory usage.

Processes compete for memory according to need. When memory is plentiful processes will be allowed to use pretty much whatever they want. If a process can use 3 GB or more memory and it can be provided without unduly effecting other processes why should it be restricted? If a time should come when there is memory pressure and more is needed for other processes this usage will be trimmed back, drastically if necessary. The memory usage of an inactive process can be trimmed back to almost nothing if need be.

The whole process of memory management is highly complex with many factors taken into consideration. Most of the time it works very well. Of course problems can develop and they must be dealt with according to the details of the situation.

I also have 16Gb Ram onto my machine and like the OP posted, When Windows Update checks for updates, svchost jumps up to 250Mb/320Mb then after 10/15mn it goes back to 30Mb.

I can have up to 4.25GB of memory occupied!!