Problems with PS version 25.4.0 and/or Camera RAW version 16.1.1.1733

I have problems with one/both of the above upgrades.

My problems (and solution) are as follows:

Once downloaded I tried to open a RAW file. The first attempt caused PS to crash and lock my laptop. After a reboot I tried again. PS went black for some considerable time before finally opening the file in CR.

I then selected SilverEfex, made modifications and clicked apply. Again there was a considerable delay before it loaded the image back into PS.

Once I had finished, I closed PS. I then noticed that, even though PS and every other program was closed, I only had 40% of memory left.

To try and narrow down the problem I did some searches on the web and finally decided to bypass Camera Raw. This is not easy to do with RAW files. You can change the settings so that CR ignores jpg and tiff files but not RAW or DNGs.

However I discovered that if you have Adobe Bridge you can open a RAW/DNG file into PS by holding the shift key down while double clicking on the file. This opens the file in PS without going into CR first.

Having done this, I then clicked ‘Filters’ and selected CR. I made changes in CR, then in SilverEfex, saved the file and closed PS (SilverEfex was faster in transferring the modified image back to PS).

Low and behold, once PS and Bridge were closed, memory was returned to normal. I repeated this several times with the same result.

I did not have this problem with the previous versions of PS/Camera Raw.

It appears the problem lies with PS loading of Camera Raw first. Why this causes hogging of memory when closed I have no idea but my workaround works OK.

I am using the Winows version. I have Windows 11 home addition. Fully up to date.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron with 250GB spare space on the harddrive, 16GB memory and an nVidia graphics card.