EXPLORER.exe draining virtual memory

[Tim G.]

I have a computer that is being drained of virtual memory by EXPLORER.exe. It
is only happening on one user account on that computer. I started task
manager at log on and looked at virtual memory use. EXPLORER.exe constantly
drained virtual memory until it was well over 1,000,000K. I found two
versions of explorer on the computer, one all upper case and the other lower;
and both are in different directories. The affected account is not an admin.
Any suggestions?

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a computer that is being drained of virtual memory by EXPLORER.exe.
It
is only happening on one user account on that computer. I started task
manager at log on and looked at virtual memory use. EXPLORER.exe
constantly
drained virtual memory until it was well over 1,000,000K. I found two
versions of explorer on the computer, one all upper case and the other
lower;
and both are in different directories.

That can be normal, as there are cached versions and old versions set aside
by Update uninstallers.

The affected account is not an admin.
Any suggestions?

One might start with a thorough virus/malware scan, and examining and
comparing the two Explorer versions and where they are.

There should only be one Explorer.exe file in use, and it is in the Windows
folder. You may also have other versions in Update Uninstall folders, and
a copy in each of the Prefetch and dllcache folders.

Task Manager really doesn't show you a lot of useful information. Get
Process Explorer instead; it will give you a much more realistic idea of
what processes are actually in use, what they're doing, and where they are.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/processexplorer.mspx

HTH
-pk