Auto-scrolling text box uses more memory than expected

Question

I have an application that logs messages to the screen using a TextBox. The update function uses some Win32 functions to ensure that the box automatically scrolls to the end

Answer 1

Tracking the amount of memory used by an application, especially a garbage collected language, is a tricky undertaking. People often used the overall memory count for an application to determine the objects still in use (for instance via task manager). This is questionably effective for native application but will give very misleading results for managed applications.

In order to correctly determine the amount of memory used by your CLR objects, you need to use a tool that is specifically geared to measuring that. For instance, I find the best way is to use a combination of WinDbg and sos.dll to measure the current rooted objects. This will both tell you the size of your managed objects and point out what objects are actually taking up the extra memory.

Here's a nice article on the subject

• http://blogs.msdn.com/delay/archive/2009/03/11/where-s-your-leak-at-using-windbg-sos-and-gcroot-to-diagnose-a-net-memory-leak.aspx