I have a habit of opening websites in their own window, then getting interested in something else in another window while leaving the first window open with the intention of returning to finishing reading. Sometimes I'll leave browser windows open for quite a while. When I do, the browser locks-up gigs of memory until it uses so much, IE will no longer respond. I've seen one browser window use up over 2 gigs just sitting there doing nothing. Chrome appears to do it too, but it doesn't use nearly as much as IE.

Is there a way to stop this?

Any ideas what may be causing it?

Is it a problem with the OS or the browsers?

Any insight is appreciated.