Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) memory leakage in Windows 10 (Version 2004).

Anonymous
2020-09-06T11:24:54+00:00

The infamous dwm.exe hogging lots of memory. FYI this is not a specific program issue. It just happens with any programs, activities randomly.

I'm getting really tired of killing dwm.exe every so often so that it will release the occupied memory. When is this going to be fixed? Is this ever going to be fixed even?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-12-24T19:01:00+00:00

    I finally found the thread!

    This is just taken moments ago, with DWM.exe inflating to a massive 17GB. I'm also running on a gaming laptop on Windows 10 20H2, as well as Intel UHD 620 and Nvidia RTX 2080 Super Max-Q.

    We are aware that the Intel graphics driver 26.20.100.7985 is the last known best working set that had no such memory leak issue. This was highlighted to Intel support but they aren't able to replicate this problem.

    And I second to most affected users here, any normal activity or usage after 3-4 hours would result in a bloated memory usage by DWM, killing the process wouldn't resolve either as it usually comes back after a while.

    I also found some inconsistencies with Windows shutdown and startup, where if I did a full shutdown the bloating issue is partially resolved. However, this doesn't fully solve the problem as it usually picks up after a few boot cycles.

    I'd like to implore Microsoft engineers to fully investigate this and urge to collaborate with Intel to find out the root cause of the issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-12-28T06:53:37+00:00

    Hmmm, same problem here, but the behavior is a little bit different...

    Using the latest driver 27.20.100.9079, DWM definitely leaks memory (sometimes inflating to a maximum size of ~2G), but it somehow manages to reclaim some of them, and the memory usage drops back after a while, maintaining an average usage under ~500M

    Weird, right? Right now it's at ~100M after running for 3 days😂

    One thing I can confirm is that switching windows/desktop will cause memory usage to rise, but I've never managed to replicate a rise to above 500M in my testing

    The rig is a Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 2, Xeon E-2276M w/ UHD 630, 24G RAM, and a Quadro T2000

    Running 20H2, Build 19042.685

    P.S. Might've discovered a svchost(Agent Activation Runtime) handle leak on my way to testing...😅Right now it seems to be stable at ~4 million handles, with no obvious influence on the system...

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-02-01T15:22:06+00:00

    I have an notebook with Intel 8th i5 with Intel UHD graphics 620 and I noticed twice, the memory leak. So I reinstalled with the latest version of Intel driver, seems to be fine right now.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-02-02T06:30:06+00:00

    Not the exact case for me.

    Recently I've found out that hybrid shut down does cause DWM.exe to bloat. I tried the Shift + Shut Down sequence for a full shutdown and the DWM memory leak issue doesn't appear.

    I'm currently on Intel 27.20.100.9168 build and Nvidia 461.40. I highly suspect the Hibernation is either bugged or the fast startup is causing the issue.

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