Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) high RAM usage

Anonymous
2020-11-27T12:01:04+00:00

Recently I felt a big performance decrease on my pc.

My configuration:

i3-8100

GTX1660Ti

8Gb RAM

I have 2 screens:

  1. 1680x1050
  2. 1920x1080

When I start Task Manager I often see 94% RAM usage and the first reason is Desktop Window Manager. It uses nearly 5Gb of memory.

If I kill this process it starts to use about 300Mb and then slowly rises to previous values.

I use Wallpaper Engine and tried to disable it, but got no result.

I also see dwm using more than 10-15% of CPU and GPU. I've done almost everythnig I found on web such as updating drivers or something but nothing's changed.

PLEASE don't write about scanning for viruses, buying new memory and etc. I need real help and want to improve performance of my pc.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2022-04-10T04:52:41+00:00

Here is how I fixed the issue.

My system specs:

CPU - Intel Core i3-10110U

OS - Microsoft Windows 11 Pro for Workstations

Display Adapter Description: Intel UHD Graphics

RAM - 12GB DDR4

I was facing similar issue wherein Desktop windows Manager process was consistently going beyond 1GB. When I went to Device Manager and tried updating my driver under Display Adapter, I got a message that I already have the latest version of driver installed. (had 30.0.100.9XXX version)

I went to Intel Asia Pacific site (link below) and searched for my processor. Under the downloads section, there was this driver version 30.0.101.1660 released on 3/31/2022. Name - Intel® Graphics – Windows* DCH Drivers.  

Intel® Core™ i3-10110U Processor

Even though the list of OS indicated in this section did not cover Windows 11 Pro version that I am using ,I still downloaded it and installed it. It was a very slow upgrade and my system froze with a full black screen after seemingly completion of installation.

I manually powered off the system and when I turned it back ON, it was very smooth. I went to device manager and found that the new driver version has got installed successfully.

Also now under Task Manager, I see that the Desktop Window Manager process is hovering around 75MB to 120 MB and not going beyond 1GB like it used to before.

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Sumit 44,416 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2021-12-01T14:38:52+00:00

The issue seems to be resolved with the Beta driver(Version 101.1121) from Intel. Keep in mind that if the OEM has made customizations to the chip, you need to ask them for updated driver as the installation would fail.

https://community.intel.com/t5/Graphics/BUG-dwm-exe-uses-memory-leakage-with-Intel-HD-Graphics-630/m-p/1338417#M103298

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66 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-05-21T14:12:10+00:00

    The thing i noticed is that when i open a livestream  on a a browser, Desktop windows manager sky rockets, and when i close the brpwser the situtation is still there . WINDOWS OR INTEL FIX THIS PLEASE ITS GIVING ME A HEADACHE

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-05-04T16:29:20+00:00

    help my brother doesn't happen that's the same version of Windows but he doesn't have Intel HD 630 I start to think it's Intel's fault

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-05-04T16:23:55+00:00

    This problem is driving me crazy.  I'm on an Alienware m17r3 with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 and Intel UHD 630. Less than a year old. Worked fine and ran quietly until a while ago I start hearing the fan running more and more often. I'm not playing any significant games atm.

    I've tried everything from downloading drivers from intel, to reinstalling Windows.  I'm going to try the suggested fix of rolling back the intel drivers to see if it helps.  I'm also seeing odd things going on with Windows Audio and Defender (see all the LocalServiceNoNetworkFirewall stuff below? maybe it isn't new, but it's there a lot now, and I don't know why).  And yes, I've triple checked for viruses, malware, and tried the usual Windows trouble-shooting.  Ugh. 

    Image

    I have the same problem core i7 7700 intel HD 630 and consumes me from 1GB to 2Gb of RAM I don't know if it's for windows or by intel

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