.NET EXE memory footprint

net

Even a simple Notepad application in C# consumes megabytes of RAM as seen in the task manager. On minimizing the application the memory size in the task manager goes down considerably and is back up when the application is maximized.

I read somewhere that the .NET process reserves a lot of memory for runtime allocation in advance. That's why .NET applications have a larger memory footprint to start with. But this memory can be released using Win32 API calls. A trade-off is that runtime allocation becomes slow – is that true?

Best Answer

The reason for the large memory footprint is that the JIT compiler and Windows Forms engine are being loaded with your process. To reduce this, you can do the following:

[DllImport("psapi.dll")]
static extern int EmptyWorkingSet(IntPtr hwProc);

static void MinimizeFootprint()
{
    EmptyWorkingSet(Process.GetCurrentProcess().Handle);
}

This should remove as much as possible from your memory footprint. There may be a way that you can also reduce the amount of memory that is set aside for runtime memory allocation.

Related Solutions

C# – Sending email in .NET through Gmail

Be sure to use System.Net.Mail, not the deprecated System.Web.Mail. Doing SSL with System.Web.Mail is a gross mess of hacky extensions.

using System.Net;
using System.Net.Mail;

var fromAddress = new MailAddress("from@gmail.com", "From Name");
var toAddress = new MailAddress("to@example.com", "To Name");
const string fromPassword = "fromPassword";
const string subject = "Subject";
const string body = "Body";

var smtp = new SmtpClient
{
    Host = "smtp.gmail.com",
    Port = 587,
    EnableSsl = true,
    DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network,
    UseDefaultCredentials = false,
    Credentials = new NetworkCredential(fromAddress.Address, fromPassword)
};
using (var message = new MailMessage(fromAddress, toAddress)
{
    Subject = subject,
    Body = body
})
{
    smtp.Send(message);
}

Additionally go to the Google Account > Security page and look at the Signing in to Google > 2-Step Verification setting.

If it is enabled, then you have to generate a password allowing .NET to bypass the 2-Step Verification. To do this, click on Signing in to Google > App passwords, select app = Mail, and device = Windows Computer, and finally generate the password. Use the generated password in the fromPassword constant instead of your standard Gmail password.
If it is disabled, then you have to turn on Less secure app access, which is not recommended! So better enable the 2-Step verification.

C# – How to escape braces (curly brackets) in a format string in .NET

For you to output foo {1, 2, 3} you have to do something like:

string t = "1, 2, 3";
string v = String.Format(" foo {{{0}}}", t);

To output a { you use {{ and to output a } you use }}.

Or now, you can also use C# string interpolation like this (a feature available in C# 6.0)

Escaping brackets: String interpolation $(""). It is new feature in C# 6.0.

var inVal = "1, 2, 3";
var outVal = $" foo {{{inVal}}}";
// The output will be:  foo {1, 2, 3}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – Sending email in .NET through Gmail

C# – How to escape braces (curly brackets) in a format string in .NET

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