explorer.exe using excessive amounts of memory

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roland Thalmann
  • Start date Start date
R

Roland Thalmann

I have a recent installation of XP Home, and I have applied
almost everything available on Windows Update. One thing I
am noticing is that the explorer.exe process likes to use
massive amounts of memory, even when nothing apparent seems
to be happening. By massive, I mean it floats around 20
megabytes just at startup, and it creeps up from there.

Many times it has reached close to 100 megabytes, forcing
me to reboot the machine just so I can use it properly. It
especially likes to climb when I am doing numerous file
operations, but it never seems to go back down again. (It
has 192mb total) Is this normal? What the hell does
explorer.exe need so much memory for? I've never had this
problem when I used Windows 2k.
 
-----Original Message-----
I have a recent installation of XP Home, and I have applied
almost everything available on Windows Update. One thing I
am noticing is that the explorer.exe process likes to use
massive amounts of memory, even when nothing apparent seems
to be happening. By massive, I mean it floats around 20
megabytes just at startup, and it creeps up from there.

Many times it has reached close to 100 megabytes, forcing
me to reboot the machine just so I can use it properly. It
especially likes to climb when I am doing numerous file
operations, but it never seems to go back down again. (It
has 192mb total) Is this normal? What the hell does
explorer.exe need so much memory for? I've never had this
problem when I used Windows 2k.
.
spyware
Click to expand...

http://www.pestpatrol.com/Search/SearchPestInfo.asp?
qu=explorer.exe&sc=%2FPestInfo%2F&Action=Go


http://www.safer-networking.org/ Spybot
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html
http://www.lavasoft.de/ Ad-aware
http://www.merijn.org/downloads.html (CWS)cool web
shedder and hijack this
 
Hi,

On a new installation, the indexing service can cause this phenomenom.
Eventually, it will slow down on its own.

Other causes could be spyware. Try this link:
http://aumha.org/a/noads.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
 
I already have AdAware installed, and it didn't find
anything. I have 256mb of ram, but the video card is
eating 64mb of that (stupid shared memory). I didn't know
the indexing service ate that much when it ran. It would
be nice if the task manager actually said it was the
indexing service instead of just throwing everything under
the explorer.exe process.

What are the practical advantages to the indexing service,
anyway? I hear more about security exploits than anything
useful that it does. If all it does is improve the speed
of file searches, I might as well just shut the thing off
cause I rarely use it anyway.

Regards,
Roland
 
More memory would not hurt. WinXP loves memory like a kid loves candy. More Memory means more stability.
 
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