explorer.exe loaded at high priority, often left in memory

Most times, explorer.exe (Windows Explorer) runs at Normal priority.
However, sometime later I will notice that it is running at High
priority. This isn't the instance of explorer.exe used for the desktop
GUI which always is at Normal priority. This is sometime later after
opening and closing Explorer several times and I notice there is a
second instance of explorer.exe hanging around after all Explorer
windows have supposedly been closed. It's like Windows XP is caching an
instance of explorer.exe because I've used it a lot. However, if I open
Explorer and it is running at High priority then using it for something
busy, like deleting thousands of files, results in the system getting
slower. It is busy at High priority which takes away CPU time from
everything else, including the desktop, that is running at Normal
priority. It can get so busy at times that trying to get Task Manager
up can be arduous (so I can drop the priority of this instance of
explorer.exe back down to Normal).

This loading of explorer.exe at High priority has never occurred under
Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT4, and 2000. I've done the usual anti-virus
and malware checks. Besides, I'll see in Task Manager an new instance
of explorer.exe get loaded - and at High priority whether I use the
Start menu shortcut or run explorer.exe using Start - Run - when it is
me that loads Explorer. I'll sometimes find a second instance of
explorer.exe still loaded in memory when looking in Task Manager
although all Explorer windows have been closed. It isn't busy (i.e., no
CPU time). If it is loaded and I open Explorer, this second instance of
explorer.exe gets reused; i.e., it isn't a remnant instance left behind
from a hung exit of the program that is unresponsive as is a continued
and known problem with Microsoft's outlook.exe and winword.exe
processes.

I really don't want a remnant yet responsive (i.e., unwindowed but
reused) 2nd instance of explorer.exe left loaded in memory when I exit
Explorer, and I don't want it loaded at High priority, either. When I
exit Explorer, I'd like explorer.exe (the one not for the desktop) to
get unloaded. When I load Explorer, I don't want it at High priority.
I'll use Task Manager and use it to up the priority if and when I want
(and right now I have to use it to *lower* the priority to Normal).

--
__________________________________________________ _______________
******** Post replies to newsgroup - Share with others ********
Email: lh_811newsATyahooDOTcom and append "=NEWS=" to Subject.
__________________________________________________ _______________

Vanguardx wrote:

Most times, explorer.exe (Windows Explorer) runs at Normal priority.
However, sometime later I will notice that it is running at High
priority. This isn't the instance of explorer.exe used for the desktop
GUI which always is at Normal priority. This is sometime later after
opening and closing Explorer several times and I notice there is a
second instance of explorer.exe hanging around after all Explorer
windows have supposedly been closed. It's like Windows XP is caching an
instance of explorer.exe because I've used it a lot. However, if I open
Explorer and it is running at High priority then using it for something
busy, like deleting thousands of files, results in the system getting
slower. It is busy at High priority which takes away CPU time from
everything else, including the desktop, that is running at Normal
priority. It can get so busy at times that trying to get Task Manager
up can be arduous (so I can drop the priority of this instance of
explorer.exe back down to Normal).

This loading of explorer.exe at High priority has never occurred under
Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT4, and 2000. I've done the usual anti-virus
and malware checks. Besides, I'll see in Task Manager an new instance
of explorer.exe get loaded - and at High priority whether I use the
Start menu shortcut or run explorer.exe using Start - Run - when it is
me that loads Explorer. I'll sometimes find a second instance of
explorer.exe still loaded in memory when looking in Task Manager
although all Explorer windows have been closed. It isn't busy (i.e., no
CPU time). If it is loaded and I open Explorer, this second instance of
explorer.exe gets reused; i.e., it isn't a remnant instance left behind
from a hung exit of the program that is unresponsive as is a continued
and known problem with Microsoft's outlook.exe and winword.exe
processes.

I really don't want a remnant yet responsive (i.e., unwindowed but
reused) 2nd instance of explorer.exe left loaded in memory when I exit
Explorer, and I don't want it loaded at High priority, either. When I
exit Explorer, I'd like explorer.exe (the one not for the desktop) to
get unloaded. When I load Explorer, I don't want it at High priority.
I'll use Task Manager and use it to up the priority if and when I want
(and right now I have to use it to *lower* the priority to Normal).

I do not know about your high-priority problem, but if you try to close
the last explorer.exe process in TaskMan, you will notice that explorer
is part of what makes Windows respond to your interaction with it...

"fm"
wrote in :
Vanguardx wrote:

Most times, explorer.exe (Windows Explorer) runs at Normal priority.
However, sometime later I will notice that it is running at High
priority. This isn't the instance of explorer.exe used for the
desktop GUI which always is at Normal priority. This is sometime
later after opening and closing Explorer several times and I notice
there is a second instance of explorer.exe hanging around after all
Explorer windows have supposedly been closed. It's like Windows XP
is caching an instance of explorer.exe because I've used it a lot.
However, if I open Explorer and it is running at High priority then
using it for something busy, like deleting thousands of files,
results in the system getting slower. It is busy at High priority
which takes away CPU time from everything else, including the
desktop, that is running at Normal priority. It can get so busy at
times that trying to get Task Manager up can be arduous (so I can
drop the priority of this instance of explorer.exe back down to
Normal).

This loading of explorer.exe at High priority has never occurred
under Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT4, and 2000. I've done the usual
anti-virus and malware checks. Besides, I'll see in Task Manager an
new instance of explorer.exe get loaded - and at High priority
whether I use the Start menu shortcut or run explorer.exe using
Start - Run - when it is me that loads Explorer. I'll sometimes
find a second instance of explorer.exe still loaded in memory when
looking in Task Manager although all Explorer windows have been
closed. It isn't busy (i.e., no CPU time). If it is loaded and I
open Explorer, this second instance of explorer.exe gets reused;
i.e., it isn't a remnant instance left behind from a hung exit of
the program that is unresponsive as is a continued and known problem
with Microsoft's outlook.exe and winword.exe processes.

I really don't want a remnant yet responsive (i.e., unwindowed but
reused) 2nd instance of explorer.exe left loaded in memory when I
exit Explorer, and I don't want it loaded at High priority, either.
When I exit Explorer, I'd like explorer.exe (the one not for the
desktop) to get unloaded. When I load Explorer, I don't want it at
High priority. I'll use Task Manager and use it to up the priority
if and when I want (and right now I have to use it to *lower* the
priority to Normal).

I do not know about your high-priority problem, but if you try to
close the last explorer.exe process in TaskMan, you will notice that
explorer is part of what makes Windows respond to your interaction
with it...

Sorry to respond late but I forgot to mark this post to be watched (they
don't show up immediately and I must've moved on to another newsgroup
before refreshing this one so I could see the post to flag it). As a
result, this thread may be too old and not get anymore responses and
I'll have to start a new one.

Yes, I realize that one of the instance of explorer.exe is the GUI
shell. In fact, in the registry, there is a data value where you
specify what program to load for the shell. The default is Microsoft's
explorer.exe. That one is at Normal priority. It is the second
instance of explorer.exe for Explorer that ends up loading at High
priority and which I want to have load at Normal priority (rather than
having to change it manually using Task Manager).

When you open Explorer, what priority do you get for the second instance
of explorer.exe?


--
__________________________________________________ _______________
******** Post replies to newsgroup - Share with others ********
Email: lh_811newsATyahooDOTcom and append "=NEWS=" to Subject.
__________________________________________________ _______________

I posted a reply to a similar thread he
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...oogle%2BSearch

I wrote an MFC app that sits in the System Notification Area and
"watches" for hi-pri instances of explorer.exe and bumps them down to
normal. The app is configurable via a context menu.

I will provide the app and/or source to anyone who wants it - email me
at JeffLoftus-at-hotmail-dot-com

"Jeff Loftus"
wrote in m:
I posted a reply to a similar thread he

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...oogle%2BSearch

I wrote an MFC app that sits in the System Notification Area and
"watches" for hi-pri instances of explorer.exe and bumps them down to
normal. The app is configurable via a context menu.

I will provide the app and/or source to anyone who wants it - email me
at JeffLoftus-at-hotmail-dot-com

There are other programs that I already knew about that did similar
priority management, like PriorityMaster
(http://www.prioritymaster.com/), but that wasn't a route that I wanted
to go. You are using one tool to defeat how an application loads. I
was hoping that other users were either also getting high priority when
they loaded a second instance of explorer.exe (i.e., this behavior is
normal and not peculiar to me) or it was something that could be fixed
in the registry by changing a data value that specifies how explorer.exe
gets loaded regarding priority.

So far I have found no information from Microsoft regarding the priority
level when loading explorer.exe. However, I don't recall this happening
under Windows 2000 (or I never noticed it) and noticed it only after
migrating to Windows XP (as a fresh install). explorer.exe rarely needs
to be running at anything other than Normal priority, and running at
High priority can interfere with other applications running at Normal
priority (because explorer.exe can interrupt them at its High priority
if, for example, you have it deleting lots of files).

--
__________________________________________________ _______________
******** Post replies to newsgroup - Share with others ********
Email: lh_811newsATyahooDOTcom and append "=NEWS=" to Subject.
__________________________________________________ _______________

This behavior only seems to occur when you have the option selected to
"Launch Folders In A Seprate Process" from within the Explorer Options
dialog.

I believe this behavior also exists in Win2K.

Indeed there are other priority-monitoring apps, but the one I wrote
specifically targets this one "bug" (MS will probably claim it to be a
feature) and as such is very lightweight.

Google on "Explorer High Priority" and you will see a few threads on
this, I've been watching this situation for some time and as of yet
still have seen NO intrinsic solution, therefore I just wrote my own.

Jeff Loftus

"Jeff Loftus"
wrote in om:
This behavior only seems to occur when you have the option selected to
"Launch Folders In A Seprate Process" from within the Explorer Options
dialog.

I believe this behavior also exists in Win2K.

Indeed there are other priority-monitoring apps, but the one I wrote
specifically targets this one "bug" (MS will probably claim it to be a
feature) and as such is very lightweight.

Google on "Explorer High Priority" and you will see a few threads on
this, I've been watching this situation for some time and as of yet
still have seen NO intrinsic solution, therefore I just wrote my own.

Jeff Loftus

Thanks for the heads up on the "Launch Folders In A Seprate Process"
option. I hadn't thought about that, but then from prior OS versions I
had always enabled this option because supposedly it increased
stability. But it nullifies itself if opening at high priority will
interfere with other processes that open, by default, at normal
priority. If a particular explorer.exe became unresponsive or screwed
up then you could kill it but you can't do that if they share the same
memory space (because there is only one instance of explorer.exe for,
say, four Explorer windows) without ending up having to kill and reload
the explorer.exe used for the GUI desktop shell. So I can have multiple
balloons to minimize the impact when one of them pops or one balloon
that I pump or deflate and hope that one balloon doesn't pop with a much
bigger impact.

Thanks for the info.


--
__________________________________________________ _______________
******** Post replies to newsgroup - Share with others ********
Email: lh_811newsATyahooDOTcom and append "=NEWS=" to Subject.
__________________________________________________ _______________

This behavior only seems to occur when you have the option selected to
"Launch Folders In A Seprate Process" from within the Explorer Options
dialog.

I believe this behavior also exists in Win2K.

Indeed there are other priority-monitoring apps, but the one I wrote
specifically targets this one "bug" (MS will probably claim it to be a
feature) and as such is very lightweight.

Google on "Explorer High Priority" and you will see a few threads on
this, I've been watching this situation for some time and as of yet
still have seen NO intrinsic solution, therefore I just wrote my own.

Jeff Loftus

Yep, that's true. And what's worse yet, when you DON'T select the
"Folders in a separate process" option, you crash your taskbar when
explorer.exe crashes (which NEVER happens, right boys and girls?
/sarcasm ) - This in itself wouldn't be so painful if so many apps
weren't written with the proper notifications to "redraw" the System
Notification Area (often erroneously referred to as the "tray"), which
results in running processes which no longer have a corresponding icon
in the "tray" (self admitted incorrect usage but for brevity). Enough
apps I run regularly lose their "tray" icons when explorer.exe
crashes, that it drove me to grab the bull by the "Longhorns"
hahahahahhaah and write an app to just "deal with it".

It wouldn't suprise me in the least to learn this behavior hasn't
changed in Longhorn (haven't personally proved or disproved this) but
if there IS anyone from MS actually reading this who gives a rat's
ass, PLEASE FIX IT!