Windows 11 default desktop Chat/Teams widgets are Edge web views that eat up hundreds of MB of memory: https://archive.is/pyvEO
Edge also preloads in the background even if it's not the default browser: https://archive.md/AAjz4
Both links also detail how to disable these "features."
That's software design now. EVERYTHING that is business/productivity software is becoming a web-page then when you get the "app" version, it's also a web page with a fancy window. To think I used to complain about Windows 95 eating up RAM, and back then it was extremely expensive to add more.
I'm becoming an old codger though, as if that wasn't always the case with me and computers. I don't want "widgets." I don't want all my program icons on the bottom in the middle. I like words on the contents of the taskbar so I can see what's in it before I click on it. So, basically I want Windows 95. Or what I actually have gone to using, KDE Plasma. I stopped dual booting a few months ago when I bought a mini-PC for gaming on my TV. No reason to go back now really, and I don't have to deal with getting nagged to restart for updates constantly, or fake security crap, etc.
You can still have words on the taskbar (at least in w10, idk if they removed it in W11). Thats more user friendly, and you can pop in the W95 theme if you feel nostalgic. good move away from Wdohs.