explorer processes

[alexleonard]

i have XP Pro service pack 1a, on a Asus A7n8X-X, AMD 2600+, 1 gig ram etc

lately i have found that i increasingly get 'explorer.exe' wigging out and using 90-99% of my system procceses. frequently this happens not when surfing the internet, but when browsing files through 'My Computer'. it seems to happen more often if i am cutting and pasting files and jumping back and forth from folders.

if i end process on explorer.exe windows becomes very unhappy (which makes sense) and i have to alt+Tab my way round programs to close them before i restart.

is this possibly virus connected? i have downloaded all the patches from microsoft and have a fully updated norton antivirus 2002 working on the pc (just did a systemwide scan which came up clean)

any ideas anyone
(i am about to do a fresh install due to purchase of new 120Gb HDD, and i would love to have this fresh install very tidy and neat without running into problems as above!)

cheers,

alex

 

[raj812]

I've seen that happen before exactly as you described. It happens especially when browsing folders with movies and music (mp3's, etc.). What's happening is windows is trying to determine the deminsions, length, bitrate, etc. of all the files in the folder you are browsing. Deminsions is usually what is taking up all the processes. Set the folder view to details and right-click on the "name heading" (same place you would click to organize the files by name) and select "more." This will bring you to the "choose details" screen. Uncheck all the boxes you do not want to display. Make sure to uncheck the demisions box as it uses a ton of processes to find the demision of all your video files. Remember... the more of these you have checked... the slower each folder will open. You have to close the folder window and reopen it again for the changes to take effect. Let me know if this works.

 

[goblinking]

Umm, you really don't want to be end-tasking explorer.exe any more than you absolutely have to... it's the user interface shell which allows you to communicate with Windows...

explorer.exe is NOT the same as iexplore.exe. The former is known as Windows Explorer, and includes folder windows, the desktop, the taskbar, etc. The latter is Internet Explorer. Much as Microsoft would have you believe they are integrated, they aren't; they are merely linked, referring to each other often.

Having said that, there are other shells you can use, although few are as stable as explorer.exe. For a while I endtasked explorer.exe when my computer booted up, and just use task manager as my shell... not recommended if you want to actually get anything done, though

Consider turning on "Launch folder windows in a separate process" (Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View). This will allow you to end-task any particular folder window that's causing you trouble, without upsetting the rest of the computer too much.

 

[alexleonard]

yeah i wasnt very fond of end tasking explorer.
but i think everything seems to be working ok. i got a new hard drive and figured i would just do a fresh install now i know my way round windows a little more.

cheers for the tips though, two things i didnt know i could do. although, unless this install is different to the last the dimensions box is unchecked. so hopefully that wont cause a problem, and hopefully the problem wont rear its head in this fresh install.



cheers,

alex

 

[Zoron]

If you click on 'New Process' and just type 'Explorer' in the box, it will restart explorer without you having to reboot.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>