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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-10T10:58:07+00:00

Here is my situation. I am building a small Windows Form that will launch

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Here is my situation. I am building a small Windows Form that will launch on Startup and run minimized in the System tray while not in use. The user will open the Form via a Notify Icon in the System tray and after submitting the form, the app will minimize back down to the System tray.

This all works fine. However, I noticed something a little odd. When the program is first launched, the Mem Usage in Task Manager shows ~14000 K. If I then open the Form from the system tray, it kicks up to ~16000 K. If I then minimize the form back down to the system tray, the usage drops to < 1000 K which is good. I have tried launching the application and waiting to see if the Usage dropped over time, but saw no change.

The reason I am concerned about this is because the application will be running in a Citrix Environment, so I would like to keep the Memory usage per instance down when the application is not in use, but I would prefer to not have to have the user open the application and minimize it every morning when they login.

If anyone has any suggestions or tips, I would greatly appreciate it. I will include the main blocks of code below.

public Form1()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized;
    notifyIcon1.DoubleClick += new EventHandler(notifyIcon1_DoubleClick);
    Rectangle r = Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea;
    this.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.Manual;
    this.Location = new Point(Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width - this.Width, Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Height - this.Height);
    currentWorkstation = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("clientname");
    if (currentWorkstation == null)
        currentWorkstation = Environment.MachineName;
    GC.KeepAlive(notifyIcon1);
    GC.KeepAlive(currentWorkstation);
}

private void Form1_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (WindowState == FormWindowState.Minimized)
       Hide();
}

Thank you for your help.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The fake “drop” in memory is because during a minimize event, Windows transfers the majority of application memory to virtual memory. During your startup, you’re probably never actually closing a form/minimizing the application, therefore the cleanup never occurs.

    More information can be seen here:

    https://micksmix.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/why-does-task-manager-show-an-applications-memory-usage-drop-after-minimizing-it-to-the-the-taskbar/

    My knowledge of this only comes from using this as a way to trick the J++ GC into running. Telling a windows application to minimize/restore is nearly imperceptible to the user, but minimizes RAM accrual in a managed-memory VM. I highly doubt this is “best practices” but it makes the numbers-guys in management happy.

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