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Memory metrics lab

Compare private bytes, working set, and commit with realistic scenarios.

Compare metrics (illustrative)

Task Manager columns map to different memory manager concepts. Numbers here are examples, not live readings.

Private bytes

1.2 GB

Process-private committed virtual memory

Working set

890 MB

Pages currently resident in physical RAM

Commit size

1.4 GB

Total virtual memory reserved for the process

Working set is what is in RAM right now; commit is virtual memory promised (can include mapped and private). High commit with lower working set often means much is paged or not touched recently.

On a Windows machine (PowerShell)

These steps run locally — the browser lab above is for learning; Windows tools show the real system behavior.

  1. 1Get-Process | Sort-Object WorkingSet64 -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 Name,Id,WS,PM
  2. 2Get-Process -Name explorer | Select-Object Name,Id,WS,PM,VM