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Difficulty: Very hardTroubleshooting Windows Performance and Application Crashes

A Windows 11 workstation hosting a local service experiences severe performance degradation every morning. A technician opens Resource Monitor to inspect system metrics and notes that Physical Memory utilization is at 95%95\%, the Disk Queue Length on the system volume continuously fluctuates between 1414 and 2020, and the system's total Commit Charge (38 GB38\text{ GB}) far exceeds the installed physical RAM (16 GB16\text{ GB}). Further analysis reveals that a background synchronization process (`DataSync.exe`) exhibits a steadily growing private byte count over several hours without releasing memory. Which of the following is the most appropriate step to resolve the root cause of this system degradation?

  1. Apply a software update or patch to resolve a memory leak within the DataSync.exe application.Answer
  2. B
    Expand the maximum paging file size in System Properties to accommodate the growing Commit Charge.
  3. C
    Adjust Processor Scheduling in Performance Options to optimize performance for Background Services.
  4. D
    Execute the chkdsk /f command from an elevated prompt to clear the elevated disk queue length.

Answer

Apply a software update or patch to resolve a memory leak within the DataSync.exe application.
The combination of high commit charge exceeding physical memory, high disk queue length due to constant pagefile reading/writing (thrashing), and a steadily rising private byte count for a single process indicates a classic memory leak in that process. Patching or updating the process addresses the underlying fault.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze Resource Monitor and system memory metrics.
Identified high commit charge (38 GB38\text{ GB}) versus physical RAM (16 GB16\text{ GB}) and high Disk Queue Length (14–2014\text{--}20).
When total commit charge exceeds physical RAM, Windows relies heavily on the pagefile on storage disks, resulting in extreme disk thrashing.
2
Isolate the offending process causing resource exhaustion.
Observed that `DataSync.exe` continuously increases its private bytes count over time.
Unbounded increase in private bytes without releasing memory is the hallmark symptom of an application memory leak.
3
Determine the appropriate root-cause remediation step.
Selected software patch/reinstallation for `DataSync.exe`.
Only fixing or patching the defective application code will stop the memory leak and eliminate the resulting excessive paging.

Key Concept

Identifying application memory leaks and distinguishing root cause remediation from symptom mitigation during virtual memory thrashing.
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Troubleshooting Windows Performance and Application Crashes

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