what is runtime broker, and why does it use so much memory?

Forget the above - I've uninstalled Norton Internet Security and I am not going to reinstall it. I actually ended up contacting Symantec again using their live chat support facility and the representative that I talked to wanted to uninstall NIS and reinstall it again, despite the fact that I told him I had already gone through this process with another rep last night. Anyway, I relented and said you can try again if you like....and gave the guy remote access. Big mistake!

This Symantec representative was trying to delete temp files on my PC whilst uninstalling NIS and he ended up in the wrong directory - my C drive. He then attempted to delete everything on my C drive, including my Windows folder and I had to jump in and stop him.

Now, I am aware that Windows would not have completely deleted itself but I could have lost a lot of important files and this guy was supposed to be helping me. When I asked him what on earth he thought he was doing, he denied having tried to delete the contents of my c drive and claimed he was deleting files from my temp folder (he started to type temp in the run window as we were talking, to take him to the correct directory). Needless to say I stopped the remote session immediately.

I have been unable to get a sensible answer from other representatives as to what they can do about the problem and why they employ lunatics so I have decided to give up. I still have 500 days left on my subscription but I would rather steer well clear of Symantec in the future. If I am ever in the mood to vandalise my PC, I am more than capable of doing it without the help of their customer service team. I am deeply unhappy with the service I received and will never deal with this company again.

It would be good if someone from Microsoft could comment on this issue as it seems a possible showstopper for them. I think it unlikely this is just a Norton issue as other people on this thread seem to be using other AVs. My Norton 360 is due for renewal in  15 days, also on the very latest Win8 compatible version, according to their website, so if need be I'll wait until then and maybe try another AV. Yet again I think this is more far reaching than just Norton.

Yes, I agree with you 100%. Since uninstalling Norton Internet Security a few hours ago, Runtime Broker RAM usage is less but it has still crept up from 2 MB to around 365 MB right now.

I know it would be expected to rise as metro apps are opened but I think there is obviously something wrong with the way it is handling file open, read/write requests etcetera because it never seems to release any memory - the usage steadily creeps up over time.

Even 365 MB is a ridiculous amount for a process that is supposed to handle metro app permissions and is said to have a low memory footprint!

I am going to see how high it goes tonight (without Norton on my system) or whether it actually gets around to releasing any memory. I might try Microsoft Live Chat support again as I mentioned earlier but with all due respect this service appears to be run by call centre staff with a set script to follow and little or no in-depth knowledge of the Windows operating system.

As you say, it would be nice if a Microsoft representative could let people know what is happening. Judging from my googling and the comments on this thread, this must be an issue for many users. Imagine how many people have no idea that they even have a problem because they don't usually bother opening task manager and looking at the memory usage of various processes...

(memory usage for Runtime Broker has actually crept up another 40MB to just over 400MB as I have been writing this - completely ridiculous!)

You certainly have had a troubling time! :D You know what, I actually sent an email to Microsoft this problem, but a representative called me back to inform me that "it is a windows core process and will always run in the background, using more memory as more applications are opened" !! I explained repeatedly (took 10 minutes) that it's using up an abnormal amount of ram (mentioning clearly 1 GB) without any apps open, but he refused to accept my problem! O_O What do they think we are? Frustrated, I ended the call and sent an email to Bitdefender. My bitdefender version is already the latest "Windows 8 Compatible" version. :-/ :p

By the way, since we are using different antivirus products, it is possible that the problem could well be of Microsoft here, as EricGorbould just mentioned.

Speaking of the customer service, it is really horrible as you are stating, and from my experience here, I feel the same. :-/

Don't worry however. They must be coming up with a solution soon. They are after all the most popular antivirus applications, and besides you can't throw away 500 days of subscription just like that!

If you are planning to try another antivirus solution, go for a trial, and see how it does on your pc.

In the meantime, let's see if I can get this problem to people who will look into this matter thoroughly.

Hi Mark,

I was seeing a similar problem.. but not with Norton software.  I downloaded a bunch of Apps and I think one or more of them are a problem.  After I have uninstalled them all I see my Runtime Broker significantly lower and not creeping up.   After I uninstalled I saw 2.6MB of memory consumed.  In the last 5 min, Runtime Broker is using 2MB. 

I can give you a list of apps I uninstalled.  I still have to narrow it down to which ones were the actual culprits.