WINDOWS Explorer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Janetb
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J

Janetb

Why does Windows Explorer (not IE!) read and write to disk and use CPU when
it is closed?? I see this from my process explorer AnVir Task Manager.
 
Explorer.exe actually has two functions; as well as producing the 'explorer
windows' such as file..open dialogs, it creates the desktop and start menu
the first time it is run. Thus one instance of explorer is always running in
the background. This instance is known as the 'shell' application.

As a matter of interest if you try terminating this instance in task
manager, you'll see what I mean. (Don't try this with unsaved files open, of
course..)
 
1. Is it on in the background because it maintains the Desktop as well as
opening it the first time?

2. If I make the program SHELLLESS my new default explorer instead of
Windows Explorer, will Windows Explorer still be running in the background
along with ShellLess? That would be a lot of extra drain on the system....
 
Not met this product, but no I don't think explorer would still run as well.

The shell app is determined in the registry, by the "shell" string value in

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

I don't think the explorer shell places much load on the system anyway. Here
it's using about 3M of RAM and no measurable processor time.
 
***

Anteaus said:
Not met this product, but no I don't think explorer would still run as
well.

The shell app is determined in the registry, by the "shell" string value
in

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

I don't think the explorer shell places much load on the system anyway.
Here
it's using about 3M of RAM and no measurable processor time.
Click to expand...

*** Mine's 14MB and 0 CPU with nothing but OE open. Hmmm.
 
The date and time was Thursday, July 16, 2009 9:19:28 AM , and on a
whim, SC Tom pounded out on the keyboard:
***



*** Mine's 14MB and 0 CPU with nothing but OE open. Hmmm.
Click to expand...

I usually see 20 - 35 meg on workstations with an average of 5 apps
running. This workstation is currently using 22 meg.


Terry R.
 
Terry R. said:
The date and time was Thursday, July 16, 2009 9:19:28 AM , and on a whim,
SC Tom pounded out on the keyboard:
***



*** Mine's 14MB and 0 CPU with nothing but OE open. Hmmm.


I usually see 20 - 35 meg on workstations with an average of 5 apps
running. This workstation is currently using 22 meg.


Terry R.
Click to expand...

I still only have OE open, but have opened and closed 3 or 4 apps. Now it's
up to 17 meg. You'd think once something is closed that Windows Explorer
would free up the resources. Must be why PC's get a little flaky if
hibernation is used a lot over a long time. (but wait, that's a different
thread.)

SC Tom
Click to expand...
 
The date and time was Thursday, July 16, 2009 11:35:57 AM , and on a
whim, SC Tom pounded out on the keyboard:
I still only have OE open, but have opened and closed 3 or 4 apps. Now it's
up to 17 meg. You'd think once something is closed that Windows Explorer
would free up the resources. Must be why PC's get a little flaky if
hibernation is used a lot over a long time. (but wait, that's a different
thread.)

SC Tom
Click to expand...

And the reason I still recommend shutting down a workstation instead of
leaving it running for weeks at a time. Regardless of the improvements
of the NT kernel, we know that "it" happens.


Terry R.
 
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