[Memory Leak] dwm.exe memory spikes to 400MB+ and remains orphaned after closing VS Code (AMD RDNA1)

[dethstruck]

Type: Bug

Environment

• VS Code Version: Stable (Current) - Issue occurs here.
• VS Code Insiders Version: Current - Issue DOES NOT occur here.
• OS Version: Windows 11
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (RDNA1 architecture)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600G (Integrated Graphics disabled in Device Manager)
• Extensions: All disabled (code --disable-extensions used for testing).

Steps to Reproduce

1. Ensure the system is running an AMD RX 5000 series GPU on Windows 11.
2. Monitor dwm.exe (Desktop Window Manager) memory usage in Task Manager (baseline ~50-150MB).
3. Open VS Code (Stable version) from the terminal using code --disable-extensions.
4. Open any simple text/code file.
5. Close the VS Code instance entirely.
6. Observe Task Manager: dwm.exe memory consumption spikes to 400MB+ and remains there indefinitely as an orphaned allocation.

Expected Behavior

Closing VS Code should release the memory allocated to the Desktop Window Manager, returning dwm.exe RAM consumption to its normal baseline.

Actual Behavior

The memory remains trapped by dwm.exe even after the VS Code process tree is completely terminated.

Additional Troubleshooting Context

I have spent significant time isolating this issue to avoid a false report. Here is what I tested on the Stable version to no avail:

• Adding "disable-hardware-acceleration": true in argv.json.
• Running with flags --disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing.
• Setting window.titleBarStyle to native.
• Disabling integrated terminal GPU acceleration.
• Performing a clean GPU driver install using DDU in Safe Mode (AMD Adrenalin WHQL).

Crucial Note: This bug is completely absent in the VS Code Insiders build. On Insiders, dwm.exe remains perfectly stable. This highly suggests that an underlying Electron/Chromium update present in Insiders, but missing in Stable, resolves a severe GPU memory leak specific to AMD RDNA1 cards on window close.

VS Code version: Code 1.121.0 (f6cfa2e, 2026-05-19T11:51:53+02:00)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with Radeon Graphics (12 x 3693)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: unavailable_software GPU0: VENDOR= 0xffff [Google Inc. (Google)], DEVICE=0xffff [ANGLE (Google, Vulkan 1.3.0 (SwiftShader Device (Subzero) (0x0000C0DE)), SwiftShader driver-5.0.0)], DRIVER_VENDOR=SwANGLE, DRIVER_VERSION=5.0.0 ACTIVE Machine model name: Machine model version: direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: disabled_software multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: disabled_off rasterization: disabled_software raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off trees_in_viz: disabled_off video_decode: disabled_software video_encode: disabled_software webgl: unavailable_software webgl2: unavailable_software webgpu: unavailable_software webnn: unavailable_software
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	15.39GB (4.26GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 05dbdab1-e516-4984-a2f0-6fe0b400f652
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

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