Windows 10: I have 8 GB RAM, but in task manager it says 6.1 GB. Also why my memory usage so high....

Here is the screenshot of task manager

:)

 

Task Manager RAM Usage

My computer is running 64 bit Windows 10 with 6 GB of RAM.

I have been monitoring my memory usage via Task Manager and occasionally download tasklist via the cmd line.

What has been bothering me is that my RAM usage at reboot starts at 34%, and left alone, increases to ~75-80% without running any programs.
(I do have start up programs including McAfee, Dropbox, Seagate console, gadgets, etc.)

When I analyze the tasklist download file via Excel, the total RAM memory usage is approximately 3.1 GB at 79%.
Doing the math, this means there is only 4 GB in use?

I have 2 questions:

1. Does Task Manager list all the RAM usage or is there some background usage that is not shown.?

2. Is there any other way to monitor RAM leakage?

 

6 GB memory usage on Windows 10 with no programs open

When I was using Windows 7, my laptop would only use around 1-1.5 GB of RAM with no open programs.

Since updating to Windows 10, it is now using over 6 GB (out of 8 GB total) of memory with nothing open, and when I start opening a few programs, memory usage reaches 90-95% and everything slows down.

Here are some screenshots of Resource Monitor's memory tab with no programs open:
1 2 3

Unlike this question, though, "Paged pool" and "Non-paged pool" memory usage in task manager are both low (252 MB and 304 MB).

What can I do to diagnose this issue?

 

why are my ram usage percentages so high in task manager

I have 8 GB of ram on my PC. So I'd expect my ram usage to be at 100 percent when I'm around 8 GB in usage. But whenever I'm checking task manager, I'll have a couple programs open only using about 500 to 600 MB of memory, and it says that I'm using 50
percent of it. Not sure if this is just a bug where I'm getting the wrong percentages or something. But whenever it reaches 100 percent usage, I get a huge drop in performance.