IE9 RC RAM Leak : Sidebar Gadget "Issue"

[Peter S]

I noticed my RAM slowly "filled up" over time after booting. This was a new issue, having started since installing IE9 RC. (Nothing else has been added to, or removed from, or changed on my System: Windows 7 64-bit with ALL updates, patches etc up to the most recent download date).

One of my gadgets is "System Monitor II" (V9.7). Upon booting, it shows my RAM as 45%, Page file 0% and "Mem Usage" as 35%. 20 minutes later, having run IE9 RC and closed it again, RAM is 64%, Page file is 2% and "Mem Usage" is 49%. If I leave the system as is, after about 1 hour the gadget freezes with RAM at 78% and the other counters are each frozen at higher than earlier readings. Norton Inernet Security "Performance Monitor" reports "excess program activity" for Windows Gadgets. If I re-boot, all starts off OK again and then RAM usage increases all ove again as before. On one occasion, the gadget locked and reported an error: "No WMI Info!" with instructions to run a Dos command to reset the gadget. It had no effect. I have un-installed Silverlight: The problem still persists. I have run Mozilla Firefox instead of IE9 RC after a re-boot. The same probelm occurs. Ihave closed all gadgets and tried a differetn single gadget that monitors RAM: The same problem occurs: RAM slowly fills up (even if I do not open any browser after re-booting). What could be the problem? (I repeat: None of the above ever happened before installation of IE9 RC and the latest Silverlight Update)

I have noticed other computer users have reported the same problem, see here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...d-d7fda9f187bc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (If this link does not work: Go to Microsoft Technet forums and search under "IE9 RC Gadget Leak")

I tried some of the "solutions" users of the above forum seem to have found to be successful, but whilst they initially seemd to work, the "leak" into RAm continued, althoug much slower in some cases. I rolled back my video driver as suggested by some, but this had no effect neither did changing DPI settings.

The side bar continued to be "massively" active. I disabled it , re-booted and then after about 20 minutes, opened the "system monitor II" gadget to see if RAM had already started to be "flooded" or if it only started then. By the way, I also noteds that the "digital dutch clock" gadget no-longer loaded: Just a blackened very vague image of the clock appeared. So, IMHO, something had ben installed with IE9 RC that interfered with/or was being intefered with by the side bar/certain gadgets.

I then installed/uninstalled a number of different gadgets whilst watching Memory "Working Set" and "peak working set" in Task manager. It seemed, most gadgets that constantly monitored processes of the System were causing RAM to "fill up" slowly in some cases, much faster in others. Most clock gadgets steadily "filled" RAM and so did System Monitors, network monitors and drive monitor Gadgets.

I executed the Gadget tests, with no other programs running at all, over a period of just over three hours. If there were no gadgets running, RAM load remained absolutely constant. The moment I ran a gadget that monitored any of the aspects mentioned above, RAM started to fill. The rate of filling depended on the nature of the Gadget and how frequently it sampled what it was monitoring. If I uninstalled the gadget, RAM did not "empty" but it did stop "filling up." Re-booting was required to reset everything.

I then uninstalled IE9 RC and "voila" Everything now works as it should. To test, I installed a number of "system heavy" gadgets simultaneously (GPU Monitor, Network Montor II, Drives Monitor and System Monitor II as well as the "Digital Dutch Clock"). All work fine, there is absolutely no RAM usage increase. So, I must assume IE9 RC was the culprit.

I am also forced to assume that Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is NOT going to solve this issue as I am sure the IE9 it will include will be the same as the RC version (I am running 64-bit Windows 7 Professional Plus).

[HansV]

I can't help with your problem, but I wanted to comment on your last sentence. As far as I know, Internet Explorer 9 will not "come with" Windows 7 SP1. It will be a separate install.

[Peter S]

Thanks Hans. I was dreading having to try to uninstall IE9 with (possibly) nothing to roll back to once SP1 came out.