Windows Live Messenger RAM Usage?

[Darkstrike]

Hey all!

Thought I would post and ask if anybody has any ideas on this, as I am stumped! I currently have a Win7 64-bit desktop with a Core 2 Duo @ 2.4ghz with 2gbs of RAM, and I use WLM all the time as my main IM client, I especially enjoy it because I can use MSN Plus! with it to increase it's functionality.

However, if I look at the task manager, I notice WLM seems to be using WAY more RAM than it needs to be. I am aware that WLM is two processes, "msnmsgr.exe" and "wlcomm.exe." For me, "wlcomm.exe" is using 35mbs of RAM on it's own, and "msnmsgr.exe" is using about 50/75mbs (That's with nothing/only the contact list window open)!!! That's over 100mbs in total!

I know I could switch to an alternate client (I use aMSN on my netbook, works beautifully!) but then I would lose the features of MSN Plus! I use constantly.

Any reason why my WLM seems to be eating RAM? Is my install corrupt somehow? It's not really a problem as my computer can handle it fine, but it never hurts knowing your programs aren't hogging RAM they don't really need, right? My contact list is only displaying 129 people in total, which is not that many compared to some people I've seen, and atm, only 105 of them are offline, so what gives?

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[not so gray matter]

I believe that your ram usage will decrease significantly if you minimize WLM to the task bar. Apparently it uses larger amount of ram when it is open on the desktop, but drops to 4-9K when minimized to the task bar. Now your ram usage is still high but hopefully that will bring it down to an acceptable level.

 

[Darkstrike]

Thanks for the reply Notsograymatter!

I'm running WLM in Vista compatibility mode as I hate the way it minimizes to the Task Bar in Win7, I would much rather have it minimize to the System Tray down near the clock like it always used to, which is what Vista Compatibility mode does to it.

Otherwise, yes, I do keep it minimized to the System Tray all the time unless I go to talk to somebody. I've noticed that opening it, and then closing it again will drop the RAM use to like..1-10mbs, but then it just slowly creeps back up to 50-75mbs, even when still minimized...?

 

[manhunter2826]

I had the same kind of issue on my previous Celeron XP laptop - so I believe it perhaps is RAM hungry (relatively speaking i mean). It would take a while to open up also but no such problems with my new Windows 7 laptop. Adding more memory to my xp laptop did make a noticeable difference though. Yahoo Messenger seems to be far less RAM hungry.