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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  1. Anonymous
    2021-07-29T18:42:31+00:00

    I have tried to figure out how to fix this other than rebooting my machine every day or two. That is a lot of work, because I have to set up my dev environment all over again each time I reboot.

    I don't have much choice, however, as things get like this:

    I don't know what else to try...

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-07-17T23:54:41+00:00

    I have the same problem since a couple of days, i noticed it while playing a game that i got insane, frequent fps drops to 2 fps. I opened task manager and I saw this bad boy eat up 8 GIGABYTES OF RAM?!?!?! I have 16gigs ram in my pc so half of my ram was being used. A few months ago I encountered the same thing but that time DWM was using like 25% of my CPU. As I'm writing this I'm checking it constantly and it's been using 11% of my GPU, the only programs I have open are chrome, discord and task manager.

    I really hope this get's fixed asap because it's making me go insane.

    EDIT: I have also tried updating my intel hd graphics 630 drivers to the newest 30. ... release, aswell as setting it back to the 26. ... as told in this thread and nothing worked.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-07-16T05:37:12+00:00

    I've only noticed it happen 3 or 4 times. Usually after a long period of sleep.

    Haven't tried any fixes yet, beta or otherwise. I will if it persists though.

    Instead I've had worse problem with no help online about it.

    Its MoUsoCoreWorker.exe

    Meant to help with updates and mayby defender, tho I'm not sure. It creeps up RAM even higher than this Desktop Window Manager Physical and Virtual too, it takes over 90% or so. I only usually notice it when my pc starts acting up.

    With both Desktop Window Manager and MoUsoCoreWorker.exe. I right click on each in Resource Monitor and choose "End Process" That always works well, but a restart will eventually be needed to allow them to run again to do what they need to do.

    edit: I don't recommend killing the process anymore. I don't think it's healthy for the laptop.

    Logout then back in is as good as I can do.

    So basically, I'm just living with it at the moment. And it's bearable.

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