what is runtime broker, and why does it use so much memory?

Question

in task manager there is process called Runtime Broker. and it uses over 600 MB of my ram. putting my average usage at 60% on my 4 gig laptop. not noticed any performance issues yet. just a lot memory being used. makes me think of windows vista almost bc it had same issue in past. it would use all system resources.

Answer 1

Well, I monitored the memory usage for an hour or so and it stayed at around 75MB with Norton Internet Security running. Given that, I don't think that uninstalling it would have made it easy to spot any difference in performance unless I left myself without any antivirus for a couple of days to see if it stopped the problem. I did try running a scan and runtime broker did not move from 75mb.

Later on today it started to go up again though and is currently at just over 1.1GB.

I upgraded my Windows 7 installation using the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade disk that went on sale on the 26th October, not using the RTM version either. Whilst I've been typing this I've decided to be a daredevil and uninstall Norton. I will observe runtime broker tomorrow and see if it makes any difference.

Answer 2

I am using Norton 360 and I have the same issue, continuous incremental memory leak, and I am running the legit bought version of Win 8 Pro not the RTM version. I find closing RuntimeBroker.ex restores the memory back to normal. on my system about 2Gig used, but the process restarts itself and before long I'm back to less than 1 Gig free memory on an 8 Gig machine. This is something MS need to fix asap.

Answer 3

Yup the fault could well be in any application or windows itself. 

It is my first time here as well. :P I doubt developers would take the time to view whats going on in communities as most of the problems people discuss here are usually solved through the community itself. However, I think these threads are checked once in a while by some 'specialist'.

By the way it seems your antivirus is not the cause of your problem, right? :D

Answer 4

Unless we are all running the same application, the fault could lie with the Windows Runtime and the way that it releases resources / frees memory....or it could be one of the WinRT apps that comes with Windows 8 (or it could be something completely different!), either way I think that it's down to Microsoft to investigate the problem.

I haven't posted in here before - do MS developers ever answer our cries for help or do they leave us to moan to each other about our problems and just hope that we go away? :)

Answer 5

Well, I think it is actually up to the developer of the (faulty) application, to fix it.  And in order to fix such a problem I guess the whole software is to be reviewed (ie thousands of lines of codes are to be revised), and that is quite a task.