Windows 11 MSN Weather App Uses 1.2GB Memory, Five Times macOS, Microsoft Plans WinUI Replacement
Windows 11's built-in MSN Weather app consumes over 1.2GB of memory in idle background, nearly five times the 247MB used by macOS's native weather app. The app, built on WebView2, spawns nine Chromium-based subprocesses and includes ads and forced Microsoft account login. Despite strong weather data integration, Microsoft plans to replace WebView2 and legacy Win32 code with WinUI, though the weather app remains excluded from current native optimization efforts.
Windows 11's built-in weather app consumes over 1.2GB of memory in an idle background state, nearly five times the approximately 247MB used by macOS's native weather app. Test data shows that when the app is opened, Task Manager reveals it automatically spawns up to nine separate child processes, all exhibiting clear Chromium process characteristics. This indicates the app is packaged using WebView2 technology rather than being natively developed.
The app is identified as "MSN Weather" in the Microsoft Store and contains a substantial number of commercial ads. In contrast, the macOS weather app employs a pure native architecture, requiring only a single process and over 200MB of memory to render real-time data, with no ads.
The Windows 11 weather app performs well in meteorological data coverage, integrating high-precision data from Foreca, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and national meteorological agencies, providing real-time radar maps, air quality index, moon phases, and severe convective weather warnings. However, the technical approach relying on a web rendering engine also brings experience issues such as forced prompts to sign in to a Microsoft account (MSA).
Microsoft has previously launched native and performance optimization updates for multiple Windows 11 built-in apps, including Calculator, Paint, Photos, and Clock, but the weather app based on the MSN system remains excluded from the native transformation list. Microsoft's app development team executives have previously publicly stated their commitment to promoting all-native Windows app development, and the company is also gradually pushing to replace WebView2 and legacy Win32 code with the WinUI architecture.