Memory Leak Detection on Windows: Process Explorer and PowerShell
A memory leak does not announce itself. The machine is fine in the morning, sluggish by mid-afternoon, and swapping to disk by evening — and a restart makes it all go away, which is exactly why the problem survives for months. Finding the process responsible takes about ten minutes with tools that are already free. Leak, or just a large cache? Not every process with a big memory footprint is leaking. Databases, browsers, and editors deliberately cache in RAM and release under pressure. A leak has a specific signature: memory that climbs steadily, never falls during idle periods, and only resets when the process restarts. The distinction matters because chasing a well-behaved cache wastes an afternoon. Measure over hours, not minutes. The three numbers that matter Counter What it measures Why it matters for leaks Working Set Physical RAM the process currently holds Falls when Windows trims under pressure — can hide a leak Private Bytes Memory committed to this process alone,...