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Is Windows Delivery Optimization slowing down my PC with high memory usage?
Recent reports from the IT community indicate a significant performance issue within Windows 11 related to the “Delivery Optimization” feature. Users are experiencing severe memory exhaustion, often leading to system unresponsiveness. This advisory explains the mechanism behind the feature, the symptoms of the malfunction, and the necessary mitigation steps.
What Is Delivery Optimization?
Microsoft introduced Delivery Optimization (DO) to reduce bandwidth strain on individual networks. Rather than every computer downloading large updates directly from Microsoft’s servers, DO creates a peer-to-peer (P2P) network within your local environment or across the internet.
- Functionality: It allows a PC to grab update parts from other PCs on the same network or a dedicated Connected Cache server.
- Intended Benefit: This speeds up deployments and reduces internet bandwidth usage.
- Fallback: If local peers or cache servers are unavailable, the system seamlessly reverts to standard HTTP downloads from Microsoft.
While beneficial for bandwidth management, this feature runs as a background service (DoSvc) that requires system resources to index and serve files.
The Problem: Exponential Memory Consumption
A critical issue has surfaced where the DoSvc process consumes excessive Random Access Memory (RAM), far beyond its intended allocation.
Key Symptoms:
- System Unresponsiveness: Computers, particularly those accessed via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), may freeze or disconnect.
- Event ID 2004: System logs frequently record this error, indicating Windows has diagnosed a “low virtual memory condition.”
- High RAM Usage: Monitoring tools (such as Task Manager or Proxmox graphs) show svchost.exe linked to Delivery Optimization consuming escalating amounts of memory, in some cases reaching 20GB.
Technical analysis suggests this behavior mimics a “memory leak,” where the service fails to release RAM after using it. Alternatively, the service may be aggressively caching update files in memory without adhering to standard limits.
Immediate Mitigation Strategy
If your system exhibits these symptoms, the most effective immediate solution is to disable the Delivery Optimization service.
Step 1: Disable via Settings
- Navigate to Settings > Windows Update.
- Select Advanced options.
- Click on Delivery Optimization.
- Toggle off “Allow downloads from other devices“.
Step 2: Stop the Service (for Advanced Users)
If disabling the setting does not reclaim memory immediately, you may need to stop the service directly.
- Open Services (services.msc).
- Locate Delivery Optimization.
- Right-click and select Stop.
- Set the Startup type to Disabled to prevent recurrence.
Advisory Conclusion
While the root cause—whether a specific bug in Windows 11 24H2/25H2 or a configuration conflict—remains under investigation by the community, the correlation between high memory usage and DoSvc is clear. Administrators and users noticing unexplained RAM spikes should audit this service immediately to restore system stability.