There's a category of Windows tool that installs in under a megabyte, sits in the tray, and uses almost no RAM until summoned. Desktop search utilities often fit — built by developers who treat bloat as a personal insult.
They're not pretty. UI from 2010. They respond in milliseconds and don't nag for subscriptions.
What minimal resource usage means
Idle RAM around 10–20 MB. No bundled offers. Installer measured in kilobytes because it's one executable plus optional language files. For finding config.yaml locally, cloud accounts are irrelevant.
Clean UI isn't empty UI
One search box, sortable results, context menu for open folder and copy path. Maybe filters for size, date, extension. Every extra panel is latency. The tools that survive on my machines respect that.
See also: Hotkeys that save ten minutes a day, Portable tools for fixing other people's PCs.