Windows Performance Analysis Field Guide

Chapter 4

Process memory

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce process virtual address space concepts and how to identify and troubleshoot process memory leaks.

Keywords

Process

Memory

Leak

Virtual

Address

Space

Fragmentation

Process virtual address space

The operating system and applications have three major ways to run out of memory: virtual address space, committed memory, and physical memory (RAM). The purpose of this chapter is to introduce process virtual address space concepts and how to identify and troubleshoot process memory leaks.

Note

In the context of this book, the term “application” refers to the user-mode side of a process. An application might not have a user interface such as a Windows service.

Each application ...