title: How do I use a dump file to diagnose a memory leak?
body: <p>I have a .NET service with a normal private working set of about 80 MB. During a recent load test, the process reached 3.5 GB memory usage causing the whole machine to be low on physical memory (3.9 of 4 GB used), and the memory was not released long after the load test was stopped. Using task manager, I took a dump file of the process and opened it in Visual Studio 2010 SP1, and I am able to start debugging on it.</p>
  
  <p>How do I diagnose the memory issue? I have dotTrace Memory 3.x at my disposal, does it support memory profiling on dump files? If not, will the memory profiling features of Visual Studio 2010 Premium help (I currently have Professional)? Can WinDbg help?</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> The new <em>Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate</em> can now natively diagnose memory issues using dump files. See <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/06/20/using-visual-studio-2013-to-diagnose-net-memory-issues-in-production.aspx" rel="noreferrer">this blog post</a> for more details.</p>
  </blockquote>