Windows 10 Box Runtime Broker Memory Issue

My Windows 10 tower computer was feeling sluggish, and the HD light was indicating constant disk activity. New browser windows were very slow to open, and even the keyboard was noticeably slow to respond.

I fired up Task Manager (Control-Alt-Delete then click Task Manager) to see what was using the most CPU and memory.

I saw that a Windows process called Runtime Broker was using a whopping 9 GB of my 16 GB of memory, and that figure kept steadily rising.  A little poking around online showed that this process controls Windows Apps and Tiles. I don’t use any Tiles. Some sites also said there was a known memory leak associated with Runtime Broker.

Some sites suggested going to Windows > Settings > System > Notifications & actions, and turning off “Show me tips about Windows.” I tried that, rebooted, and Runtime Broker still began steadily gobbling up more and more memory.

I went back to Notifications & actions and turned off all Notifications. Rebooted, and Runtime Broker has been holding steady at about 0% of CPU and 5.7 MB of memory used.

My machine feels snappy again, with new browser windows popping and the keyboard response back to normal.

So far I haven’t run into any functionality issues by turning all Notifications off, but I hope MS fixes this, because it would be nice to have some of them back.

UPDATE: Runtime Broker is now restarting itself, gradually eating up memory, shutting itself down, restarting itself…. Crazy. But at least the memory used values seem to top out at under a GB before it shuts down and restarts.

UPDATE: Seems to have settled down now…

UPDATE (12/24): Nope, has not settled down. Sigh…

Upgrading Photo Drive

I take lots of photos, so I have a second hard disk in my main computer dedicated to photos and videos. The other day I noticed that the 2 TB drive was down to only 9 GB free! That was a shock, considering that’s well less than one 32 GB card in one of my DSLRs.

Upgrade time. I had to move those 189,330 files in 2,523 folders onto a larger drive.

I have plenty of drives around that I use for backup in a couple of HD “toasters” — USB 3 docks that you can hotswap SATA drives in and out of. So I popped a 3 TB drive into a dock, and copied all those files over to it.

That done, I opened up the tower computer, pulled the old 2 TB D: drive and installed the new 3 TB drive. I used the Disk Management tools to rename the new drive to D:, so that my photo programs find it.

Worked great, and I now have nearly a TB of free space.

I have two NAS (networked attached storage) devices but use them only for backup. I like having my photos on a secondary internal HD for fast access.

Made Paella Tonight – Folks Asking for Recipe

I made paella tonight. It’s not something I cook often, but perhaps two or three times a year. Folks on FB were asking for the recipe, and since this took some time to write out, I thought I’d post it here, too. I’m not an expert by any means, but this works for me.

Preheat oven to 400 F / 200 C

Saute a dozen (headless if you’re squeamish : – ) prawns with shells on (adds more flavour to the paella and your fingers if you peel shells later : -), boil half a dozen mussels for two minutes, tossing in a dozen clams with the boiling mussels for the last minute. Discard any mussels or clams that do not open.

Many recipes also call for sauted chicken drumsticks/thighs, or diced sauted chicken breast, diced chorizo or other sausage, etc., but just seafood is fine if that’s what floats your boat. I also sometimes add chunks of sauted non-oily, lighter fish, like basa.

Take a few strands (a pinch) of saffron and steep in a bit of water. Can put more if you like, but there’s no need to go crazy with it.

Prepare 1.5 liters of broth (I just use chicken powder, but of course it’s better from scratch if you have time, using whatever base you like), You can also substitute some of the water the mussels/clams were boiled in if you’re really into seafood flavour.

Chop an onion or two and lightly saute with a quartered tomato or two. Garlic, for those who like it.

Put about 600g (~1.5 lbs) of uncooked long-grain rice in an oven-safe stone pot or casserole dish. Stir in the broth, the onions and tomatoes, toss in some peas. Stir in the steeped saffron. Salt and pepper if you like. I find the broth and saffron alone do the trick.

Take the prawns, clams in their now open shells, and mussels in their now open shells, and press them on top of the rice mixture. Bake uncovered in oven for 25-30 minutes. Around the 20-minute point I peek in the window every couple of minutes to see if there is still liquid percolating at the bottom of the glass casserole dish.

Take out and let stand for ten minutes or more before serving.

I’m sure there are plenty of variations. It’s hard to go wrong, so try what you like and seems interesting. Just be sure to saute, boil, or otherwise cook whatever seafood and un-smoked meats you are using, as appropriate or to your taste, before arraying them on top of the rice mixture, because 25 minutes in the oven is likely not enough to cook them thoroughly. (And you want to make sure any fresh shellfish opens up for you).