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Memory leak / Handle leak

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  • Last reply by la3amon

angus7
angus7
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When my Webroot comes back with its scan report it always says that "an active process has a possible handle leak" and "an active process has a possible memory leak". What's that all about? I am not a techie, so please explain. It doesn't sound very reassuring, does it?

When my Webroot comes back with its scan report it always says that "an active process has a possible handle leak" and "an active process has a possible memory leak". What's that all about? I am not a techie, so please explain. It doesn't sound very reassuring, does it?

Chosen solution

Hi angus7,

Here is a fairly simple explanation for a memory leak: A Memory leak occurs when your computer closes an open program and that program fails to release whatever memory it used while running. A memory leak may also happen when an object is stored in memory but cannot be accessed by the running code. It's basically a type of bug in a program. Nothing really to worry about. These events happen frequently and can sometimes affect performance. If a certain program is causing an issue which greatly affects your system resources or crashes frequently, you should submit a bug report to the authors of the offending program. One way to check for memory leak is to press and hold down your Windows key and tap the Pause/Break key to bring up System Properties. Most keyboards no longer have a Pause/Break key so you would have to look up the keyboard shortcut for your system.

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All Replies (1)

la3amon
la3amon
more options

Chosen Solution

Hi angus7,

Here is a fairly simple explanation for a memory leak: A Memory leak occurs when your computer closes an open program and that program fails to release whatever memory it used while running. A memory leak may also happen when an object is stored in memory but cannot be accessed by the running code. It's basically a type of bug in a program. Nothing really to worry about. These events happen frequently and can sometimes affect performance. If a certain program is causing an issue which greatly affects your system resources or crashes frequently, you should submit a bug report to the authors of the offending program. One way to check for memory leak is to press and hold down your Windows key and tap the Pause/Break key to bring up System Properties. Most keyboards no longer have a Pause/Break key so you would have to look up the keyboard shortcut for your system.