windows - Is it true that in .NET the garbage collector gets called when you minimize the program?

Question

I had created a program in C#. That program used about 60-70 MB of my memory. But when I minimized that program, it required less memory, that is, just 10 MB.

When I maximized or came back to that program it used 20 MB...

Why does this happen?

Is it true that garbage collector gets called when you minimize the progam?

Answer 1

This has nothing to do with garbage collection - this happens with non .NET programs too (try minimizing your browser while looking at the memory footprint for it).

The moment you minimize a program, the windows OS will not longer need to keep the UI components in memory, hence the memory requirements are lower.

That is - windows trims the working set when an application is minimized.

See this channel9 thread and this KB article (thanks @Sasha Goldshtein).