Why does Vista explorer.exe hog cpu & how do I stop it?

[Marian M.]

I've seen a few messages on this, but none with cures or explanations.

Am on dual core machine with 32 bit Vista, so explorer only hogs up to 51%
of CPU instead of all, though this still is enough to stop me from being able
to get work done. On this latest instance, I turned the Win Explorer window
off & waited for ~ an hour, which did nothing to alleviate the problem (task
manager still showed explorer.exe going strong). Then tried 'regsrvr32
somedll' that someone in this discussion group recommended for a similar
problem under XP, which earned me "error code 0x800a0046", so I guess that
wasn't the thing to do.

So, what =is= going on? What is win explorer trying to do? It feels like the
throttle won't shut down, or some such thing. Is there a cure besides turning
the Win Explorer window off and on?

 

[Earle Horton]

How much memory do you have in your system? Explorer is the shell, the
thing that handles starting programs, showing system menus, the task bar and
such. There is no "Windows Explorer Window" you can turn off, not with the
effect of really shutting down Windows Explorer. On my system explorer.exe
usually uses less than 1% of CPU, a little more when I make it work like
switching windows.

Earle

 

[NetLink_Blue]

I've seen a few messages on this, but none with cures or explanations.

Am on dual core machine with 32 bit Vista, so explorer only hogs up to 51%
of CPU instead of all, though this still is enough to stop me from being
able
to get work done.

If explorer.exe constantly uses this much CPU time, then you do have a
problem.

The explorer.exe process will always show in Task Manager. If you ended it,
your Taskbar and all desktop icons would disappear. That is the "shell"
that lets you interface to Windows. Closing explorer window does not stop
explorer.exe.

Something is making it run/work overtime. Troubleshooting is in order.
Usually, folks stop programs, processes one-by-one until things return to
normal. The last program/process closed would be the suspect.

- Net

 

[Cameron Snyder]

Since you are able to diminish CPU usage by closing the window, I would
suggest you change your view in the explorer window to list or detail view.
Generating thumbnails in a large folder of JPG files might require more cpu
power until fully built.

 

[Marian M.]

The machine has 3Gb of RAM.

It looks like I need a vocabulary lesson. Before Vista, there was something
called Windows Explorer that was the means by which one managed files on the
hard disk. In Vista, there is a window one initializes by right clicking on
the computer icon and choosing 'Explore' that is the means by which one
manages files on the hard disk, and there is also Windows Explorer, in the
sense that Task Manager-Processes lists an 'explorer.exe' with the
description 'Windows Explorer'. So, what is this mystery 'computer-explore'
window called?

BTW, it is this window whose name I do not know that I closed, then waited
for ~ 1 hour, then reinitialized. When the window was reinitialized, Task
Manager-Processes showed that explorer.exe was no longer using ~ 5-% of the
cpu.

 

[Marian M.]

Actually, the explorer window was in detail view. It wasn't closing the
window that cased the cpu hogging by explorer.exe to stop. It was when I
reinitialized that window that the cpu hogging stopped.

 

[Marian M.]

Can you recommend which processes I can close down within killing everything?

Actually, there were few processes running at the time that explorer.exe was
'doing' so much. These were explorer.exe, taskmgr.exe, ArcMap.exe, and
sometimes a flicker of dwm.exe. ArcMap is a GIS program that was running a
routine that had been ongoing for 2 days. I didn't want to shut it down
because it was almost done with it's calculations. Also, this is something I
do often (leave ArcMap running for days on end).

Explorer.exe 'reset' itself somehow without my touching ArcMap.exe (the
reset conincided with me reinitializing the window by which one manages files
on the hard disk, though I realize this doesn't necessarily mean that the
reinitialization caused explorer.exe's behavior to change).

TIA,
Marian

 

[NetLink_Blue]

A bit of clarification first. I use the term File Explorer to refer to the
window for managing folders / files. This is what came to mind when you
mentioned Windows Explorer. I have seen Web Pages that referred to "Windows
File Explorer" and Windows Explorer. I think we are on the same page here.

As this time, if ArcMap is needed to be kept running -- maybe be patient and
wait till it finishes. That would be a better time to isolate when/how
explorer.exe process goes hyper-active. Does explorer.exe consume CPU
cycles right after booting up? Do you have a lot of programs that start up
when Windows does? When did you first notice the problem? Does the problem
start up / is it related to ArcMap running it's routines? Any particular
routine? The suspect list can get rather long.

Get a computer geeky friend to come over and help troubleshoot. Hopefully,
it will be a simple and quick fix. Good luck.

- Net

 

[Marian M.]

Thank you. I'll try these things, although I =can= say that this doesn't
happen when Windows turns on. It seems to happen out of the blue after I've
been working an hour or so. Sometimes when I try to copy a file using to File
Explorer windows the system will 'try to calculate how big the files are' for
an extended period of time. If I go to Task Manager & cancel that process &
then try again, File Explorer then behaves properly. I haven't paid attention
to whether these things happen only when ArcMap is running. I will keep track
from now on. Today was the first time that explorer.exe just kept going &
going without any apparent reason.

Actually, now that I think about it, this has been happening at the same
time that the clock has been slowing down (for about the past 2 weeks). My
department's computer person has been on vacation, so I've only been able to
bother the person who asks him to help rather than the computer person
himself. I'll add this explorer.exe behavior to the list of things to tell
him.

Thank you again for your help.
Marian