explore.exe memory usage keeps increasing over time?
just like the title states, when i first boot up my computer explorer.exe stars out at 15,000 K, as time goes it increases, one thing that bothers me is when i open a folder or windows explorer, memory usage increases, which makes sense, but after i close it memory usage does not decrease, it remains the same, so the more folders i open over time the more memory is used, which is really scaring me, my computer is not slow but i would like to know if this is normal, before i rebooted my explorer.exe was at lik 65,000!!! now it is at 40,000 but i am not sure how long it will stay that low, can someone offer me a solution to this problem, or this normal? i have a toshiba setellite L505D and 3GB of RAM. my computer already as a problem, EXTREMELY SLOW booting time, when i restart or even log off i get s black screen for like 5 minutes before being taken to the log in screen, can this be related to the explorer.exe issue?
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Verified answer
Your slow boot may be related -
first, explorer.exe is the Windows program that maintains your desktop and screen view.
It has to keep track of everything that is running - so you have the appropriate things displayed, and everything available - in case you hit a new button, and it keeps a history, in case you hit a back or undo that affects the desktop.
Explorer will accumulate more and more over time. It has been improved to clean up after itself, but nothing beats shutting down all your programs and powering down the machine. That truly cleans up memory.
Slow machine is a combination of -
machine does a bunch of self-checks in the BIOS;
machine checks every port connected, especially nasty if you get a dozen "virtual network connections".. as every one is examined before Windows fully boots.
machine needs to enumerate the entire registry (at least a big chunk);
machine needs to run all the startup programs.. [ antivirus, auto update for windows, auto update for flash, auto update for java, auto update.. for anything, quick start for Java, quick start for MS Office, quick start for MS OneNote, quick starts... anything, printer software, scanner software, itunes, aol, camera, webcam, .. and lots of other possibilities.]
.. eliminate anything you don't use, disable what you don't need every day, and if you can - back up the system and reinstall the Operating System from scratch. Over time, we pick up a lot of updates, updated updates, registry values, old programs that don't quite remove.. and this adds the most to the start time.
... if the machine is getting older, then your hard drive may be slowing, or at least in need of a strong defrag (automatic in Win7).
remember to keep your hard disk at least 25% free.
that includes the 10-12% taken up by the recycler and another 10-12% by windows system restore. If you use hibernate or sleep, thats another 2-10 GB of space, and your swap file another 2-4 GB.
... if your hard disk is old, or if you are using more than 70%, consider upgrading to a larger, faster one.
Again, even with a new drive - a clean re-install is a great performance improver.