Winlogon Leaks Because of SMTPSVC Performance Counters

Over time, the Windows NT system responsiveness appears sluggish, and clients may report a gradual decrease in system performance. Users connecting to the server over the network may receive RPC Server Busy errors.

Side effects of the memory leak may include "Out of Virtual Memory" messages or the system stops responding completely when memory is totally exhausted.

By tracking the handle count and the amount of Private Bytes for Winlogon.exe, it can be observed that, over time, the values continue to increase.

When running the resource kit utility Srvinfo.exe against a server remotely handles to the registry are not closed if the server has the SMTP service installed.

The following key was being repeatedly opened and not closed:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\SMTPSVC\Performance

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.