This happens w/ all windows apps. See

   http://www.itwriting.com/dotnetmem.php


Steven Swerling wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I opened a taskmanager window so that I could monitor memory usage while 
> I was doing some tests w/ WxMorhic. I noticed when all of the windows 
> are minimized, suddenly the memory footprint plummets (in this 
> particular case, from about 60MB to about 10MB -- I had about 10 windows 
> open). Strangely, after restoring the windows, memory usage stays quite 
> low as long as you don't do anything inside of the windows (even though 
> I had BouncingAtomsMorphs going in all the windows). I thought maybe I 
> was wasting resources somehow.
> 
> To be sure I checked it out w/ Lex' 3.7 stable universe image. The same 
> thing happens. For instance, when you first start the image, it takes up 
> about 15MB of memory. I added a BouncingAtomsMorph, then mimimized the 
> window and restored it. The memory usage drops to 4180K and stays there 
> (if you move the mouse over the window, memory usage starts to trickle 
> up, but if you don't, it doesn't change).
> 
> So I thought maybe the vm was releasing some resources on mimimize -- 
> but unless I was looking in the wrong place (quite possible), the vm 
> doesn't do anything special when the window is mimized.
> 
> It doesn't seem to be related to garbage collection.
> 
> Anyone know what's going on? Is there any way to trigger this release of 
> resources w/out minimizing the window? It might be nice to do this once 
> every minute or so if it's possible.
> 
>