Explorer.exe memory usage.

willhub · 4 Jan 2010 at 15:38

Hi.

For some reason on my laptop Explorer.exe appears to be using around 50-60mb memory, this seems off as on my desktop it's only using 13mb, couple days ago I noticed it was up to 1.5GB on my laptop!!!!!!!!, so I quit it, restarted the process, and the usage was constantly creeping up to which point I restarted the PC when it got to 500mb.

Both of my PCs are running Windows 7.

Any ideas what could be causing it? Windows Defender finding no problems. Both PCs are running Avast AV.

Thanks
Will

gillywibble · 5 Jan 2010 at 14:13

What other processes are running? What items are starting in msconfig?

willhub · 8 Jan 2010 at 20:37

Here are complete pics of them.

Currently explorer.exe is at 505mb and creaping.

Also ran Hijack this, have not properly looked through it yet, but a message saying the system denied write access to the hosts file, I don't know if this is bad, I had a look in it and all I could see was:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

Fegruson · 8 Jan 2010 at 22:21

Might it be worth having a look at using Process Explorer and seeing what is within the explorer.exe process tree? Seeing if there are any specific apps causing it to increase over time?

willhub · 8 Jan 2010 at 23:16

I tried that program, did not understand it, seemed to show everything that uses it, even stuff that is not running, was hundreds of explorer.exe.

gillywibble · 9 Jan 2010 at 10:17

Try rebooting with only Avast started in msconfig.

Also check addons in Internet Explorer (if you use it). If it's not a start up app, then I think it's a virus.

willhub · 9 Jan 2010 at 10:32

Avast is detecting no viruses?

Broken Hope · 9 Jan 2010 at 11:31

willhub said:
I tried that program, did not understand it, seemed to show everything that uses it, even stuff that is not running, was hundreds of explorer.exe.

Could you post a screenshot? There shouldn't be that much running under the explorer tree.

willhub · 9 Jan 2010 at 11:53

I'll post one up later, weird thing is, at the moment explorer.exe is fine, I remember though, at the time this memory creeping started, explorer crashed, so I closed it, restarted it and it started creeping up, I just restarted it now to see if anything would happen and explorer.exe was stable at 24mb.

Mr.Nick · 9 Jan 2010 at 18:02

Mine is currently at 37.5mb, is that normal?

Uhtred · 9 Jan 2010 at 18:25

What is rocket dock? Try turning that off. Also, have you installed any codec packs?

willhub · 9 Jan 2010 at 18:52

No codec packs, Rocket Dock is a dock full of shortcuts I use, it's very popuar, I know this is not the cause since it's on my desktop also and the desktop does not have the problem with explorer.exe

willhub · 10 Jan 2010 at 13:40

How do you use this procmon app so you can see currently running processes and the process tree?

**edit**

Maybe I've sorted it?

Too many entries to get on the screen though..