On my dev box I have my SQL Server configured with a high maximum amount of memory (8GB of 16GB). This is required for many development tasks.

Sometimes I want my memory back, though. I don't want to leave 8GB consumed permanently.

What's a good way to get SQL Server to suddenly release all it's memory to the operating system?

`DBCC DROPCLEANBUFFERS` does *not* do that. It merely marks clean buffers as available.

Restarting SQL Server is a problem because this causes a 1 minute database recovery to be run due to this bug/feature: [Stopping the SQL Server service causes databases to not shut down cleanly][1] (please vote for that connect item; seems like an egregious bug).


  [1]: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/776427/sql-server-service-control-manager-shutdown-does-not-checkpoint