How to Allocate More RAM to Specific Apps in Windows 10

Feb. 15, 2021

Do you know you can specify how much RAM you want a particular app to use on yourWindows 10computer? Whether it’s yourbrowserthat starts lagging withdozens of open tabsor a game that just won’t work withstreaming musicor other programs running in the background, it’s a problem that most of us have faced over the years. So today, we will show you how to allocate more RAM to specific apps in Windows 10 to optimize memory usage in your computer. You will also learn how to increase or reduce RAM cache in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

Allocate More RAM to Specific Apps in Windows 10

Typically, Windows does a decent job of deciding how much memory to allocate to each app. However, you can override the default system settings manually and prioritize RAM allocation for specific apps in Windows 10. Here’s how you do it:

The easiest way to allocate additional memory to any specific application in Windows is by elevating its priority. You can do it easily from the Task Manager by following the steps detailed below:

This would ensure that your computer gives higher priority to that program over other applications that may be running simultaneously.

You can also specify the amount of RAM for each program by using the next method. It works for most apps, but here, we will show you how to set (increase or reduce) RAM cache inGoogle Chrome.

Note:If there’s no Chrome shortcut on the desktop, right-click on Google Chrome in the Start Menu and select ‘More > Open File Location’. Now right-click on the shortcut in the opened folder and select ‘Properties’.

The above action would allocate up to 1073741824 bytes (1GB) of RAM cache to Google Chrome. I chose 1GB for demo purposes. You can select any value of your choice (depending on available memory in your computer) to increase or reduce RAM cache in Google Chrome.

The best way to allocate additional RAM to a program (or reduce memory allocation) is to specify the amount from within that app’s settings. However, this method does not work for all apps, and even when it does, the process varies from one program to another. Here, we will show you how to set (increase or reduce) RAM cache in Mozilla Firefox.

You are unlikely to damage your PC by specifying too much (or too little) RAM to any app. However, it can cause a program to crash or become unusable under certain conditions. The reason for that is what’s called a ‘stack overflow error‘, which happens when the call stack memory is exceeded. Also worth noting is that some applications are coded to use a specific amount of RAM. So you might not see a massive improvement by allocating more memory to those programs.

With consumer PCs starting to ship with insane amounts of RAM, you may not always notice any significant slowdown in performance while using multiple programs and applications at once. However, you must have felt the need to optimize memory usage if you’re using an older computer or an entry-level machine with limited memory.

Using our tutorial above, you should be able to easily allocate more RAM to specific apps tospeed up your Windows 10 computer. If you liked this article, check out our linked guides explaining thebest windows 10 tips and tricksand the steps you can take to improve battery life on your Windows PC.

Passionate techie. Professional tech writer. Proud geek.