How to Fix the Memory Leak in IE WebBrowser Control?

Question

I am trying to embed a WebBrowser Control in a C# Winform Application. This sounds easy enough. However I discovered that the WebBrowser control eats up a lot of memory every time I call the Navigate method. The memory is never released. The memory usage grows and grows…

Many people on the net having the exact same problem but I haven’t found a satisfying answer yet. This is the best discussions about this issue I found so far:

Memory Leak in IE WebBrowser Control

One person suggested an upgrade to IE8 to fix the problem.

However I need a solution that works whether the user has the latest IE version installed or not. I do not have control over the users environment.

Does anybody know how to release the memory taken by the WebBrowser control? Are there workarounds? Are there alternatives to the WebBrowser control?

Update: I just did a few more tests. At work I am running Windows XP and IE6. The memory is not growing there. The memory increases when calling the navigate method but is being released after a while. At home I am running Vista and upgraded to IE8. Here I also do not see the problem anymore. It looks like the issue is specific to IE7. So the question should be rephrased to "How to Fix the Memory Leak in IE WebBrowser Control when IE7 is installed". Can anybody confirm that this problem is specific to IE7?

Answer 1

my app was also constantly consuming memory when navigating, and not releasing anymore. i fount the solution for me here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ieextensiondevelopment/thread/88c21427-e765-46e8-833d-6021ef79e0c8

for completeness ill post the notable excerpt:

-- in class definition      [DllImport("KERNEL32.DLL", EntryPoint = "SetProcessWorkingSetSize", SetLastError = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]     internal static extern bool SetProcessWorkingSetSize(IntPtr pProcess, int dwMinimumWorkingSetSize, int dwMaximumWorkingSetSize);      [DllImport("KERNEL32.DLL", EntryPoint = "GetCurrentProcess", SetLastError = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]     internal static extern IntPtr GetCurrentProcess(); 

-- code to call when you want to reduce the memory

        IntPtr pHandle = GetCurrentProcess();         SetProcessWorkingSetSize(pHandle, -1, -1); 

all honors to: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/profile/mike_t2e/?type=forum&referrer=http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ieextensiondevelopment/thread/88c21427-e765-46e8-833d-6021ef79e0c8 for posting the solution.

and http://ict-engineer.blogspot.com/2010/10/net-webbrowser-control-memory-leak.html for SEO'ing it right, so i could find it ;)

greetings

edit: if this helps you to quickly solve an issu - good. but you should overthing your application design, the pattern you use if any , refactore the thing if you build onto that much longer ....

Answer 2

The BASIC IDEA is,

"Kill myself, and reborn."

Windows will solve all memory problems.

but if you Close your application first, you can't start a new one.

So, START A NEW ONE, and CLOSE THE OLDER ONE.

First turn on a new one, and turn off an old one.

---

public void SOLVE_ALL_MY_MEMORY_PROBLEM() {   System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("MyProgram.exe");   Application.Exit(); } 

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTBlKRzNf74

If there is a parameter,

public void SOLVE_ALL_MY_MEMORY_PROBLEM() {   System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("MyProgram.exe", "PARA_para_dance");   Application.Exit(); } 

Go to Program.cs

    static void Main(string[] args)     {         Application.EnableVisualStyles();         Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);         if(args.Count() > 0)             Application.Run(new Form1(args[0]));         else             Application.Run(new Form1());     } 

and, Go to Form1.cs and make another Form1()

    public Form1()     {         InitializeComponent();     }      public Form1(string dance_name)     {         InitializeComponent();          ...     } 

or you can use temp file !!!