So Visual C++ started getting unresponsive, so I started Task Manager to shut it down. This is what I saw: (Look at the memory column)
Any idea what could cause this kind of memory usage? I thought processes in 32-bit Windows OSs could only have a maximum of 512 mb of ram or something

http://imageshack.us/f/196/errorrs.png/

No, processes on 32 bit Windows can normally use up to 2GB of memory (or 3GB if special switch in boot.ini is used).

Ah fair enough, but still, no application should be doing this! My poor old laptop only has 2GB to share around, and some of that has to be used for graphics memory as well.

Ah fair enough, but still, no application should be doing this! My poor old laptop only has 2GB to share around, and some of that has to be used for graphics memory as well.

Not sure if this will work, but you could try setting devenv.exe's priority to below normal.

I know when VAX is parsing new solutions for me it uses literally all of my CPU, so I do that so I can debug while VAX is parsing. Not sure if this also affects the memory footprint if you're running out of memory though. I imagine as long as you have free RAM VS will probably take as much as it needs regardless of priority; if other stuff needs it it may get moved to virtual memory though?

No idea if this is accurate, but it might be worth a try.