Memory Report from Windows Task Manager

C# Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Memory Report from Windows Task Manager

This section provides a tutorial example on how to use Windows Task Manager to verify memory usage numbers reported by the System.Diagnostics.Process class.

To verify memory usage numbers reported by the System.Diagnostics.Process class, I wrote another tutorial example program which calls System.Threading.Thread.Sleep() to keep the program running. Then "Windows Task Manager" can be used to see memory usage numbers reported by the Windows system.

1. Compile the tutorial example program below with .NET 4 C# compiler:

// LongSleep.cs
// Copyright (c) 2010 HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.

using System;
public class LongSleep {
   public static void Main() {
      System.Diagnostics.Process proc
         = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess();
      Console.WriteLine("Current process: {0}", proc.ToString());

      Console.WriteLine("Private Memory: {0}",
         proc.PrivateMemorySize64);
      Console.WriteLine("Virtual Memory: {0}",
         proc.VirtualMemorySize64);
      Console.WriteLine("Working Set: {0}",
         proc.WorkingSet64);
      Console.WriteLine("Paged Memory: {0}",
         proc.PagedMemorySize64);
      Console.WriteLine("Paged System Memory: {0}",
         proc.PagedSystemMemorySize64);
      Console.WriteLine("Non-paged System Memory: {0}",
         proc.NonpagedSystemMemorySize64);

      System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(60*60*1000);
   }
}

2. Run the tutorial example program, LongSleep.exe.

Current process: System.Diagnostics.Process (LongSleep)
Private Memory: 8740864
Virtual Memory: 89157632
Working Set: 5591040
Paged Memory: 8740864
Paged System Memory: 100228
Non-paged System Memory: 3988

3. Run "Windows Task Manager" and click "View" > "Select Columns..." menu. The "Select Columns" dialog box shows up.

4. Check "Memory Usage", "Virtual Memory Size", "Paged Pool" and "Non-paged Pool" checkboxes and click OK.

5. Check "Processes" tab and look at the "LongSleep.exe" row:
Windows Task Manager

Memory usage numbers reported for LongSleep.exe are:

Image Name: LongSleep.exe
Mem Usage: 5,904 K
VM Size: 8,676 K
Paged Pool: 98 K
NP Pool: 3 K

6. Compare the program output and the "Windows Task Manager" report, we can map "Windows Task Manager" values to System.Diagnostics.Process properties:

    Windows Task Manager     System.Diagnostics.Process

            Memory Usage  =  Working Set
VM (Virtual Memory) Size  =  Private Memory
              Paged Pool  =  Paged System Memory
     NP (Non-paged) Pool  =  Non-paged System Memory