Workaround: Microsoft Visual Studio IDE becoming slow or unusable

Published/Last Updated: September 18, 2009
Author: Krishna Kishore
Platform: Windows
Client: Rational Team Concert 2.0.0.1 client for Microsoft Visual Studio IDE

Summary

When using Rational Team Concert 2.0.0.1 client for Microsoft Visual Studio IDE, after a while the Visual Studio IDE can sometimes become very slow or unusable and even throw an “Out of Memory” exception.

More Information

Symptom

• The memory consumption of Microsoft Visual Studio IDE keeps increasing and at one point the IDE becomes unusable.

Cause

If internal Web browser is been used to view RTC repository items like work items, build results, or plans, the memory consumption of Microsoft Visual Studio IDE goes up and is never released even after closing the internal Web browser. This is due to a memory leak in the Microsoft WinForms WebBrowser control.

Diagnosing the problem

After using internal Web browser to view RTC repository items like work items, build results, or plans, the Microsoft Visual Studio IDE becomes slow or unusable. To check if the internal Web Browser is the cause of the problem, open the Task Manager and check the memory usage of Microsoft Visual Studio IDE. If the memory footprint is high and the memory consumption does not come down when the internal Web Browser is closed in Microsoft Visual Studio IDE, then the problem is with the internal Web Browser.

Resolving the problem

If you face this problem, restart Microsoft Visual Studio and change your options to use an external Web browser instead of internal Web browser for viewing RTC repository items. To change your preference to use an external Web browser, click Tools > Options > Team Concert > Web Browser and select Use external Web browser.