At IFA 2026, Microsoft confirmed Windows 11 will boot faster, so you’ll notice the lock screen appear almost immediately. It also reaffirmed that Windows 11 will soon run well on 8GB RAM PCs, and even security features like Windows Hello will feel more responsive when the next big update rolls out.
Microsoft has spent much of 2026 promising that Windows 11 will get better at the things previous versions of Windows already excelled at, such as moving the taskbar, resizing the Start menu, or having more native apps. All of that was a normal part of the OS before Windows 11 happened, and Microsoft has finally realized it messed up.
Some of those promises have already come true, but if you haven’t seen any visible difference on your PC yet, it’s because of the gradual rollout. With the September 2026 Patch Tuesday update, scheduled for September 8, Microsoft will enable the movable taskbar, resizable Start menu, and let you remove Bing from Windows Search.
It’s a good list of improvements, but there’s more, and Microsoft teased some of it at the IFA 2026 conference.
Speaking at IFA 2026, Mark Linton, Corporate Vice President of Windows & Devices at Microsoft, confirmed that Windows 11 has already made significant gains in performance, and early internal benchmarks suggest the OS has reduced boot times.
“We’ve made significant gains on things like boot time, Windows Hello responsiveness…” Linton said.
Windows Latest understands that the faster boot time isn’t live in the preview builds, and Linton was likely referring to an internal build.
“We’re continuing to improve on the fundamentals,” Linton added. “We’re listening to customer feedback, continuously improving Windows, and you’ll see those updates as Windows just gets better as the updates come through.”
Microsoft wants Windows 11 to run well on 8GB of RAM
Microsoft has already suggested that it’ll make Windows run well on 8GB RAM PCs again due to rising memory costs, and we heard that statement again at IFA 2026.
“We’re optimizing so that 8 gig of RAM runs great on machines as well,” Linton said without sharing any numbers.
Nobody should be buying an 8GB RAM PC for any serious tasks, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft’s and the industry’s broader effort to make Windows or apps run better on 8GB of RAM is a bad idea.
It’s going to benefit everyone, including those with 16GB, 32GB, or more RAM. In fact, it’s good to see companies working to improve their software for a change, as that practice appears to have gone missing entirely over the last few years.
And if you don’t believe how unoptimized Windows apps are, just open Task Manager and stare at a few of the background processes, such as Discord, which, according to its own developers, can use up to 4GB of RAM. Or Microsoft Teams, which can use 1-2GB of RAM in an idle state.
For years, Microsoft has been pushing 16GB of RAM as the new baseline and 32GB RAM as the recommended hardware for the best gaming performance. Copilot+ PCs still have a baseline requirement of 16GB of RAM, so PCs that launched with 8GB of RAM do not qualify as Windows AI hardware, and that includes Microsoft’s own Surface laptop with 8GB RAM.
But the whole idea of pushing AI and justifying more RAM has backfired and contributed to rising prices. And Microsoft is now explicitly talking about optimizing Windows so that 8GB systems still “run great.”
