Windows does literally copy (parts of) files into memory. More precisely it's Windows Defender Real-Time Protection. It's a real menace when you're dealing with

Windows does literally copy (parts of) files into memory. More precisely it's Windows Defender Real-Time Protection. It's a real menace when you're dealing with a lot of small files, e.g. node_modules. Windows Explorer is also slow for an unknown reason. Doing file operations through the API with Real-Time Protection turned off is several orders of magnitude faster in the case of small files. It's crazy stuff.