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Asked: 2026-05-10T19:30:02+00:00

I have a WinForms application (I’m using VB) that can be minimized to the

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I have a WinForms application (I’m using VB) that can be minimized to the system tray. I used the ‘hackish’ methods described in multiple posts utilizing a NotifyIcon and playing with the Form_Resize event.

This all works fine aesthetically, but the resources and memory used are unaffected. I want to be able to minimize resources when minimizing to system tray, just like Visual Studio does. If you are coding in Visual Studio, the memory usage can creep up (depending on project size) to above 500 MB, but when minimizing Visual Studio to the taskbar, the memory drastically decreases to (what I’m assuming) is the minimal amount.

Does anyone have any clue as to how to accomplish this?

Here’s a short description of the application, if anyone finds it relevant: I have a windows form with a ListView that contains Work Orders for my IT department. The application has a ‘listener’ that notifies when a new Work order is submitted. So, when the application is running in the system tray, all I really do is compare the count of items in the ListView to a count of rows in a SQL table every couple of minutes.

EDIT: To be more specific, a windows form intrinsically has threads and resources being used by means of the controls, when the form is invisible (in the system tray) these resources are still being used. What can I do to minimize these resources, short of killing all the controls and redrawing them when the form is restored.

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1 Answer

  1. Calling MiniMizeMemory() will do a garbage collection, trim the process working size, then compact the process’ heap.

    public static void MinimizeMemory() {     GC.Collect(GC.MaxGeneration);     GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();     SetProcessWorkingSetSize(         Process.GetCurrentProcess().Handle,         (UIntPtr)0xFFFFFFFF,         (UIntPtr)0xFFFFFFFF);      IntPtr heap = GetProcessHeap();      if (HeapLock(heap))     {         try         {             if (HeapCompact(heap, 0) == 0)             {                 // error condition ignored             }         }         finally         {             HeapUnlock(heap);         }     } }  [DllImport('kernel32.dll')] [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)] internal static extern bool SetProcessWorkingSetSize(     IntPtr process,     UIntPtr minimumWorkingSetSize,     UIntPtr maximumWorkingSetSize);  [DllImport('kernel32.dll', SetLastError = true)] internal static extern IntPtr GetProcessHeap();  [DllImport('kernel32.dll')] [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)] internal static extern bool HeapLock(IntPtr heap);  [DllImport('kernel32.dll')] internal static extern uint HeapCompact(IntPtr heap, uint flags);  [DllImport('kernel32.dll')] [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)] internal static extern bool HeapUnlock(IntPtr heap);
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