# explorer.exe is eating my system resources. Why?



## thedivinehairband (Apr 26, 2006)

I have recently acquired a new problem with my PC. (lucky me)

When I start windows up and everything is loaded all seems well with the world. At least for 5 minutes or so. It is then I notice it starting to slow down even though I'm just web browsing and listening to some music. 

So a Ctrl+Alt+Del and find that I've got a 2.5gig pagefile! I checked the processes and found that things didn't add up all things seemed normal with the RAM being reported as used coming to much less than the total so I restarted and tried again. 

This time when I booted up I immediately opened up the taskmanager to watch what happened. It was then I saw the problem. Right before my eyes though I was not even using the PC explorer.exe began to use more and more RAM. Slowly at first then more and more still, till it had created 1.5gigs of paging file and was using all my CPU runtime. 

Having found my culprit I shut the explorer.exe process down and started it again. Waited. And nothing happened. It sat happily at the desktop idling away using around 20megs of RAM. 
So the £64,000 question is. Why does it do this? 
My workaround seems to work fine and I have no other problems with the system. Just this little issue when I boot it up. Curious. I tried disabling all other starting programs and that did nothing for it. explorer.exe still just kept eating the RAM. 

Oh guru's of techpowerup.com. Show me the path so that I may find my way to enlightenment and fix this bloomin awkward little issue.
Thanks for listening to this drivel.


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## Solaris17 (Apr 26, 2006)

hmmmm........try running antivirus etc?...you could try messing with the page file and adjusting the values just try to do anything diagnostic scan for viruses spyware do a diskclean up and a defrag and try this instead of restarting the computer hit CTRL-ALT-DEL again and type explorer.exe or just explorer to bring it back up and see if it will stop without a reboot if anything this will save you time.


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## trog100 (Apr 26, 2006)

u shouldnt really be able to switch it off and still have a working operating system.. its a fundermental part of windows.. 

i can only think virus.. something strange is going on..

trog


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## thedivinehairband (Apr 26, 2006)

I have the latest virus defs for my virus checker and have looked through and found nothing. 

The retarting explorer.exe suggestion is exactly what I do. Just stop the process and bring it back and the problem stops. But its a pain in the arse doing it everytime windows starts.


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## trog100 (Apr 26, 2006)

i just tried disabling mine out of curiosity.. my screen just went blank and i had to hit the reset button.. the problem u describe isnt one i have ever heard of to be honest..

if u only have 1 gig of physical system memory.. a 1.5 gig page file seen in task manager means something is useing all your  real memory plus half a gig of hardive memory.. all very odd..

trog


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## thedivinehairband (Apr 26, 2006)

Tis very odd indeed. Its definately explorer.exe using it because I can see it use more and more in the process window then when I close it the paging file clears and all normaility is restored once I start the process again. I tried closing down other processes and made no difference. Bloody windows pain in the arse sytem.


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## DRDNA (Apr 26, 2006)

YOU CAN NOT DISABLE EXPLORER.EXE  it is your desktop!!!!! if you want explorer.exe to use less ram and resources then clean up your desktop space and start storing that stuff in My Documents!!!!!


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## DRDNA (Apr 26, 2006)

Take everything on your desktop  except your trash bin and Internet Explorer and put it in a folder then put that folder in My Documents, that should fix your issue !!!


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## Solaris17 (Apr 26, 2006)

sure you can shut down explorer.exe .....Ctrl-Alt-Del  find explorer.exe click on it now go to the bottom of the task manager and hit End Process now its gone all you have is your wall paper now bring it back Ctrl-Alt-del again go to file click new task and type in explorer.exe or just explorer and it brings it back yayayayaaya was that hard?

@divinhairband dude clear your temp folder and your Prefetch and then restart normally through windows so it saves see if that does it...also down load This reg program and run it make sure all the boxes are selected and then after its done delete all entries and reboot.

do tell


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## Deleted member 3 (Apr 26, 2006)

There are quite some causes actually, virusses could be one of them.

http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&q=explorer.exe+100%&meta=

Remember, I'm your Satan and Google is your god.


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## Solaris17 (Apr 26, 2006)

And i am your messiah


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## trog100 (Apr 26, 2006)

the so called cpu usage problem is people misreading things.. it means the opposite to what folks think in some cases.. free not used..

explorer.exe isnt your desktop.. what exactly it does in xp i am now wondering.. in 98 it was part of windows kernal.. it was the operating system nearly or at least the graphical shell.. in xp it seems some folks can switch it off without a total system crash.. i cant.. 

a link as to what it is.. what u see as explorer.exe migh be a virus useing the name..

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/explorer.exe.html

trog


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## DRDNA (Apr 27, 2006)

DRDNA said:
			
		

> YOU CAN NOT DISABLE EXPLORER.EXE  it is your desktop!!!!! if you want explorer.exe to use less ram and resources then clean up your desktop space and start storing that stuff in My Documents!!!!!




Well yes you can disable but like what was already stated no more desktop just wallpaper or what ever...I dont know why you'd do that though.

If you believe its a virus get your self into safe mode and scan it  , dont forget to scan it with a spyware remover too while your in safe mode.


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## KennyT772 (Apr 27, 2006)

ok here ya go
press F3
search for explorer.exe - you should get a few copies in your windows folders
if u find a copy somewhere else then it is prolly spyware or a virus.


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## trog100 (Apr 27, 2006)

it should live loose in the windows folder.. if u find any more be suspicious.. he he.. check the size is correct as well..









trog


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## thedivinehairband (Apr 27, 2006)

I think you have all assumed I am some sorta fool. I am not. 

I do realise if you disable explorer.exe your system doesn't work. 

And that using a registry cleaner can help as a matter of fact I have that exact cleaner and used it. 

Clearing windows prefetch folder also does no use. It merely slows my system down for a while untill the folder is filled again with the programs I commonly use and recently accessed files. 

I have one copy of explorer.exe in my system. 

My desktop has 12 shortcuts on it and the majority of my stuff is in the My Documents folder.

I am aware of what explorer.exe is and can turn it on and off at will. It basically is windows. Though why they named it "explorer" and not "windows" is beyond me as they use the same ame when you open up any folder. 

I have virus scanned and spyware sweeped innormal boot and safe mode and found nothing, nada, not a dickie bird. 

I am going to do some screenshots of the problem as it progresses. Perhaps that shall give a better picture of whats going on. 

Thanks for all the suggestions anyway!!!

I love you all!!


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## thedivinehairband (Apr 27, 2006)

DAMNED AWKWARD PICKY USELESS TEASING LITTLE GIT WINDOWS ARRRGH!!!

It won't do it. I'm going mental. I've sat here after a restart for it to suddenly take over all my lovely RAM and it won't do it. I cannot explain why. I've done nothing different. Absolutely nothing different. 

Bill Gates is teasing me.


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## trog100 (Apr 27, 2006)

he he he.. 

i am sure u have googled all over the place looking for answers and aint found any.. your problem aint a common one.. 

a ghost in the machine perhaps.. he he he.. when u exorcise the f-cking thing.. dont forget to tell us what spell u used.. he he he 

trog


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## CjStaal (Apr 28, 2006)

Explorer.exe is only the graphical user interface for the Windows operating systems. It is not bad to shut it down, unless you don't know how to use the command prompt . Anyways, shutting off Explorer.exe can help while playing video games, benchmarks, ect.
I hardly ever use explorer.exe


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## trog100 (Apr 28, 2006)

it was bad for my system.. i shut it down just out of curiosty.. ended up with a totally blank screen a mouse cursor that moved about the blank screen but no keyboard and had to hit the reset button.. basically nothing worked.. he he..

trog


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## Solaris17 (Apr 28, 2006)

trog100 said:
			
		

> it was bad for my system.. i shut it down just out of curiosty.. ended up with a totally blank screen a mouse cursor that moved about the blank screen but no keyboard and had to hit the reset button.. basically nothing worked.. he he..
> 
> trog



really? i just ctrl alt del again and the task manager comes up then i run explorer.exe again and it comes back up(like logging in) it just crashes on yours? thats odd none of my systems or freinds systems or school systems do that .


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## trog100 (Apr 30, 2006)

its not some i have ever done before.. having used win 95 and 98 for years i just assumed it to be an integral part of the operating system.. it seems to do less in xp then it used to do in 98.. i will do it again just to make sure.. he he he

just tried it again.. it didnt crash the system this time.. i still had keyboard/mouse and task manager but explorer.exe had dissapeared out of the task manager and i couldnt figure out how to switch back on again so still had to hit the reset button.. how do u switch it back on.. ????

trog


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## bigboi86 (Apr 30, 2006)

Hit Ctrl-alt-delete and run explorer.exe w/ taskmanager.

I had Iexplorer.exe just eating my resources away once too, was a virus. It didn't open up pages, but if you looked at the processes like 100 iexplorer.exe processes would be running. 

I could end them all.. and check it again 1hr later, same thing..


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## gR3iF (Apr 30, 2006)

try panada?
or even cut of internet and see what is happening 
do you have newest windows updates?
which system exact? sp2? win x64 prof?


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## strudel (Apr 30, 2007)

I'm having a very similar problem to yours. except that it only starts when I connect to my work's vpn. explorer.exe start's clocking up memory used.  you don't need to kill the process - if you bring up an explorer window and then minimize it, you'll see the memory shrinks down to a few meg, must be some kind of windows garbage collection. then it starts clocking up again. I'm forever doing maximize/minimize.  I'm fairly convinced it's spyware/virus as i have another machine which behaves fine when connected to the vpn. sorry can;t be of more help, but you're not alone!!


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## Completely Bonkers (Apr 30, 2007)

There are times when trying to fix a problem takes longer than reinstalling the OS.

I suggest you reinstall the OS and then do some basic security things:

1./ Only use admin account when installing new software, but run the PC with a 
2./ User or Power User credentials
3./ Install a good antivirus with a process blocker, like McAfee Enterprise 8.5
4./ Run a popup manager like admuncher
5./ Set iexplorer security options sensibly, not wide open

It's a lot of hard work and time I know. But it happens to me occasionally. Somehow the registry, or a DLL or two, or GPU drivers, or other drivers, screw up. There is no way to track them down with luck. The fastest repair is to reinstall.

Consider a second HDD with a backup partition of your system files after you installed all your apps. That way, you can quickly mirror the system backup onto your C: and be up and running with a fresh install in just minutes.

(Be sure to move your My Documents directory structure to another partition!)

Good luck.


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