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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

156 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-26T01:09:01+00:00

    im having the same problem, i have dell uhd graphics 620 xps 9360. is this has anything do to with the graphics driver?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2021-03-26T13:22:24+00:00

    it seems that people managed to fix it with certain older versions of intel drivers

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2021-03-26T13:32:11+00:00

    My dwm.exe is exploding now every day, since latest Intel drivers even more than before. No one at Intel is interested in looking into it as usual. I had reported several bugs to Intel in the past and that was their usual answer "cant reproduce".

    It seems to get worse if you use sleep a lot actually. I can trigger it with Chrome and Firefox. Tried OpenGL in Chrome as Angle renderer, that didnt help anything.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2021-03-27T11:35:00+00:00

    I got this idea the other day, when I was thinking of what I did / changed and what was new in Windows 10 20H1 or 20H2 related to GPUs, so I knew this feature was newly introduced with 20H1:

    https://www.windowslatest.com/2020/02/16/windows-10-v2004-hardware-accelerated-gpu-scheduling/

    I knew I had enabled it (maybe it's since then enabled by default) on my laptop around end of 2020.

    It also just is enabled, shown the option for, when the driver is supporting WDDM 2.4. That is also a total overhaul MS did with 2004, WDDM 2.4 (Windows Display Driver Model). So that might be a reason for this issue too. And also, why older Intel drivers, which dont support WDDM 2.4 dont show this issue.

    I disabled Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling 2 days ago, and since then tried to reproduce the memory leak. Since then.... no memory leak anymore. This might be a "bad luck" coincidence, but it looks good so far, at least for my memory leak of dwm.exe. I imagine there could be several bugs causing this, not just one.

    So I advice anyone who has this issue, see if "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" is enabled, and if it is, disable it, reboot, and see if the memory leak of dwm.exe goes away.

    You can find the option if you go into Windows 10 settings -> system -> display -> scroll down to the end -> graphics options (last option on the page) -> https://i.imgur.com/6XlWKxO.png

    Will test over the next days and report back if I still get a memory leak. So far, I didnt have any anymore since I deactivated it. And I tried a lot to reproduce it with countless videos playing both in Chrome, Firefox, triggering dGPU with gaming, put laptop to sleep while playing videos and so on.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2021-03-29T12:03:35+00:00

    Strangely, I dont have this option.. i just restarted windows because of new cumulative update, dwm.exe dropped from ~660MB to ~70MB..

    win10 version is now 20H2 , 19042.870,  Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments