What’s the best way to troubleshoot memory utilization problems?



During normal application use, one of your clients receives an “out of memory” error. Where’s the best place to start troubleshooting this problem?

A) Task Manager

B) Device Manager

C) Event Viewer

D) MSCONFIG


The answer: A) Task Manager

The Task Manager provides a comprehensive view of real-time operating system statistics. From the Task Manager, you can view real-time lists of running applications, I/O utilization, changes in memory use, network activity, and overall system health statistics. You can tell pretty quickly which applications are active and which ones are using the most amount of system memory.

The incorrect answers:

B) Device Manager
The device manager can tell you what hardware and drivers might be installed, but it won’t tell you how much memory is currently in use.

C) Event Viewer
The event viewer is a useful post-mortem resource, and it might be useful for getting a more detailed error message from the application. Unfortunately, it won’t help you determine how much memory is in use.

D) MSCONFIG
MSCONFIG is a great utility for managing startup processes and boot options. However, it won’t help you gather real-time memory statistics.

Want to know more? Watch “Diagnostic Utilities and Tools.”


There are numerous utilities that can assist with the diagnosing of problems in the Windows operating system. In this video, we’ll work with the Task Manager, Device Manager, Event Viewer, MSCONFIG utility, Remote Desktop, System File Checker, Registry Editor, and demonstrate the features of the Computer Management console.