XD Classic, mate.

Wait, won't that overload the dilithium chamber?

Since most software runs in a protected environment, it's Windows' task to free the RAM once the software is completely closed.
I don't know exactly how Windows manages RAM, but the devs of IMDisk (RAM Disk) said that it does not happen until the RAM is needed by something else. Pagefiles should be cleared at system startup. If one has 32 Gigs of RAM or more, he should use a small pagefile setting. Disabling it however is a bad idea, over the years I found some games and other software, that would not start if there was no pagefile.

Hard disk space ...
Run a cleaner once in a while, CClean is a good software for that. Disable the options for Firefox, Internet Explorer and other software if you don't want it tot delete cookies.
Also the Windows software for freeing disk space does a good job (right click hard disc, properties, tools).
The greatest impact of both programs might be a) clearing the temp folder and b) removing old Windows Update files, that are not needed anymore and that can be a LOT of space.

Uggg... i hate that type of thing. One reason i disable updates and refuse to touch 8/10 so i don't have to fight with that.

Reminds me of the push for Windows 8, the malware approach from the auto-updates and not taking no for an answer so where clicking anything was the same as 'yes i want to upgrade' and pre-downloading 30Gb install of the OS.

I was just about to propose installing Arch Linux, but I guess not...

Me too, but some like this don't abide by your update setting. Similar sneaky thing happened with the Kindle4PC app a year or so ago, which caused even more grief and angered many. We all had 'update' disabled.

This was with Windows 7, so not limited to 8/10.

I'll ask my wife if she uses Google Drive on the computer, the memory still hasn't been returned so I figured I'd drop by here and see if there was any more insight to glean. It's strange, I tallied up memory used vs memory and the deficit is there...but the computer just doesn't see it. The more I've messed around with it, the more I think it is my PC responding poorly to Galaxy, and not the other way around.


Ccleaner did not work. :/

Well i don't let mine even start up. The best way to make sure it doesn't try to update. That or block all Microsoft IP's at the router level.

How much disk space are you even talking about?
In theory you could try SpaceSniffer to check the situation, but you should also be careful not deleting important things..

Might be worth showing your workings at this point and confirming which type of memory you're talking about. RAM, HDD or something else?

I did and do that, but not always at the Services level, so sometimes they magically re-appear and I don't always notice.

Hmmm I've yet to see it turn one of those back on when manually forced off, even when it suggests using update to get a driver.

You misunderstood, I was talking about the regular startup sections, not in Services.
i..e. you remove an entry from Registry startup locations or the Startup folder itself, and sometimes because some process is running, they magically get restored, or because you didn't disable a service they come back on next boot or next schedule.

LOL