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
    2020-11-27T14:17:50+00:00

    My Nvidia drivers are up to date. I judt updated my Intel drivers and reset my computer and it seems the memory leak is still present in DWM

    RAM usage started at about 150mb and has been steadily climbing

    Currently at 686.2 mb with only task manager window being open.

    EDIT: seems elsewhere people have found out this is a bug specifically with the drivers to the Intel HD/UHD 630 and how it behaves on current Windows updates. Currently updating Intel Drivers doesn't help but downgrading them to a version before this bug was present seems to. Going to try it myself and see how that goes.

    EDIT: Alright, after booting in to safemode, running DDU and unintalling my Intel HD Drivers, and installing the 24.20.100.6286 drivers and then getting back in to Windows seems to have done the trick, even from shutdown instead of reset.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-10T23:17:09+00:00

    Having same provlems as you guys. 16gb ram, RTX 2600, intel UHD 630 on 27.20.100.8984, laptop obviously. I also use wallpaper engine and have dual monitors, one in the HDMI port and one in a mini displayport on the UHD graphics.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-12-09T09:37:52+00:00

    I posted it here:

    https://community.intel.com/t5/Graphics/BUG-dwm-exe-uses-memory-leakage-with-Intel-HD-Graphics-630/td-p/1222297

    but Intel seems to be not able to reproduce and thus fix the bug. For me, the following activities helped:

    • roll back driver to 26.20.100.7985
    • restart the comouter instead using fast startup through shut-down (no hibernate)
    • restart the dwm.exe in task-manager

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