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Memory pressure

Start with Windows commit and kernel memory, then decide whether the pressure belongs to an application, WSL, containers, or a kernel pool.

mem
memapps
memproc
wslmem
  • memapps aggregates processes by application name and sorts by private bytes.
  • memproc shows individual processes.
  • memtop opens the interactive system view.
  • poolmon is appropriate when paged or nonpaged pool is unexpectedly large; pooltag TAG resolves known pool tags.
  • memmap opens RAMMap when file cache, standby lists, or driver allocations need a graphical breakdown.

Do not kill the first process with a large working set automatically. Private bytes, commit pressure, mapped files, WSL VM memory, and kernel pools describe different ownership.

For a case:

tricky new memory-growth -Problem 'Commit grows until applications fail' -Target 'worker.exe'
tricky report memory-growth -Open