Why does my computer slow down after being on too long?

Question

I'm sure everyone has experienced it - if you leave a computer on too long, every once in a while, it needs a fresh reboot. I have a laptop, and I only hibernate it, but every week or two, I'm going to need to restart otherwise it will just slow down (usually when windows update makes me restart)

I was wondering though... why? What are some of the things that occur that eat up memory that can seemingly not be freed unless I reboot the OS.

In addition, are there any programs I can get that can free up this memory and keep the computer alive for longer? Preferably for windows 7.

Answer 1

This has nothing to do with Windows itself (any more - once upon it time it was true). My Windows machine has been running for nearly 4 months solid now and is doing fine. I haven't even needed to restart for the last few rounds of monthly windows updates. This has everything to do with programs running in Windows - often bad device drivers.

If you genuinely have a memory leak, you'll be able to see it (and the culprit process) in the task manager, and should be able to improve things by restarting the process.

Answer 2

Some program may be buggy and may leak Windows handles or memory.

You could verify which, by using Task Manager, Processes tab, menu entry View / Select Columns.

Select the following columns : Peak Working Set, Memory (Private Working Set), Paged Pool, Handles, USER Objects, GDI Objects, I/O Reads, I/O Writes.

By clicking twice on a column one can sort the processes by ascending order. This is the simplest way to find out which processes are most using these resources.

The Resource Monitor is another and a more sophisticated tool.
See Taking A Closer Look At Windows Resource Monitor.

Answer 3

This problem arises due to memory leak. Use these links to find out how to solve it.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/microsoft-details-windows-7-memory-leaks-hangs-freezes.ars

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms859415.aspx

http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tip/Memory-leaks-Finding-a-memory-leak-in-Microsoft-Windows