Process size question

[Tiles]

When i start my little app the Windows Taks Manager shows that it needs 9MB.

When i use the System Tray Object and minimize it to the Systray it needs 3 MB.
When i minimize it, then minimize it to systray it needs 1.6 MB
When i restore my window it needs around 3 MB.

Why is there the difference between minimize and minimize to systray? Isn't that the same minimizing?

When i start my little app invisible and minimize it to systray immediately after start the Windows Taks Manager shows that it needs 9MB.

Is there a way to start with the 3MB?

EDIT, just to clarify, this happens with a fresh, clear app too. Start a fresh created app, and the edrt.exe needs around 6.5 mb to display this app. Minimize it, maximize it, and the ram useage is at 2.2 mb. So there is more than 4 MB stuff that disappears by minimizing. Stuff that i want to get rid off.

[SEELE]

unless the app actually changes what it's doing there is little chance that the app will change in ram usage you will probably find this it to do with the task manager's sampling.

[Jax]

The number is just an estimate, I believe. Apparently it is very hard to work out the correct figure.

[Tiles]

Thanks. I know that the Windows Task Manager is not the exactest.

Hmm, then let the question be how to modify/setup the app so that it displays the correct process size.

Fact is that there is a big gap between 6.5 and 2.2 Mb in a blank app. And i can delete 4 Mb displayed process size by simply minimizing and then restore again. A fresh app is even just 648 Kb when it is minimized.

Fact is also that there is a way to start with small size. Other apps do it too. They start in the systray in the size of the minimized status. Not in the size of the restored/maximized status. Be it my firewall, be it the realtek sound system driver panel, be it what it be that stays in the systray.

But an MMF app always starts with maximized size in any status, no matter what i try. A size that it doesn't reach anymore after it was minimized once.

See, has nothing to do with Task Manager nor its sampling status. As told, other apps can start in minimized size. It is MMF.

[DevonV]

Thanks. I know that the Windows Task Manager is not the exactest.

Hmm, then let the question be how to modify/setup the app so that it displays the correct process size.

Fact is that there is a big gap between 6.5 and 2.2 Mb in a blank app. And i can delete 4 Mb displayed process size by simply minimizing and then restore again. A fresh app is even just 648 Kb when it is minimized.

Fact is also that there is a way to start with small size. Other apps do it too. They start in the systray in the size of the minimized status. Not in the size of the restored/maximized status. Be it my firewall, be it the realtek sound system driver panel, be it what it be that stays in the systray.

But an MMF app always starts with maximized size in any status, no matter what i try. A size that it doesn't reach anymore after it was minimized once.

See, has nothing to do with Task Manager nor its sampling status. As told, other apps can start in minimized size. It is MMF.

Minimized state is more a visual function of the GUI than anything else. Unless the program is designed to do something different when minimized (some do suspend execution or lower their priority class), doing so changes nothing but what you see on screen. Many programs consume more resources during their initialization than they do once they settle into their normal loops. Minimizing it might just trigger a refresh which causes the memory usage to be correctly reported following the startup spike.

I'm not sure what you're building, but 6MB seems like nothing to worry about for an active application. Most commercial apps I run average 17MB at the least, and some 40+.

Since you're implying that the app will not normally be minimized to the tray, it sounds like it's a utility or a game, in which case I don't think it's worth fretting over 4 MB of RAM. You should expect 512MB as a minimum these days, and it's not uncommon even for bargain boxed systems to have 1GB.

Now if you could consistently, at any point in execution, reduce the size of even large MMF applications by sending them to the tray, that would be something.

[Tiles]

My app resides normally in the systray, autostarting with windows. But with the ramsize of the maximized status. That's why i worry. Something that no other app does.

I boot, no matter if the the app is in the systray or not, i have 10 mb ramsize:


I maximize then minimize, and am at 1.7 mb:



I maximize again, and it doesn't go up to 10 mb, but to just 3:



And no matter what i do, when i minimize and maximize after that, the ram will not go up to the initial 10 mb. And to 1.7 mb when minimizing. And that's what i would like to have when booting minimized. 1.7 mb in task manager. I wouldn't even mind when it would be the 3 MB. But it's the 10 Mb.

My app is a very small helperapp. Just a few lines of code,two buttons two edit boxes and a few strings. But uses 10 mb ram for this until i minimize it with the upper right minimize button.

[Jax]

Maybe one of CT will know?

[Yves]

I think the size displayed in the task manager is not the exact size used by the application. For example, suppose that your application requires 100 Mb at start and then frees 90 Mb : the task manager might still display 100 Mb (instead of 10) until it reorganizes the memory and minimize the amount of memory used by the application (it doesn't need to minimize it until another program asks for more memory). Probably when an application is minimized or enters an idle loop Windows minimizes the memory heap it uses.

Just a supposition...

[DevonV]

My best guess, if it's actually using the 10MB and not just erroneously reporting that it does, is that maximizing and then minimizing it triggers a garbage collection routine. It might be purging graphical data from RAM when it is sent to the tray. I think you do need someone familiar with the internals of the engine to comment on this. I guess that's taken care of.

Random thought: If you compile it with the HWA beta, does the memory usage change any?

[SEELE]

'supposition'... cool word.

You'll find memory usage has little reflection on what's actually happening, it simply refers to the largest address that the application has used it is almost certain that during startup it refers to a large address (probably to do with creating a visual layer for the application) and when you minimize, it will not appear large in the task manager until it has addressed to that memory again...

..And as DevonV said earlier (in an commander Ikari tone) anything under 100 MBs is almost inconsequential.