Speed up by ending explorer.exe process

Mark Vinbury · Post by **Mark Vinbury** » 11 Aug 2011 9:56 am

My Dell 4550 running Windows XP was operating at a snails pace when browsing the internet. I have a DSL connection and was about to spring for FIOS when I figured out a work around that speeds things up to bearable.
I was looking at my Task Manager-- Processes window and noticed explorer.exe was using up CPU and memory even when I had no Internet connection showing on my screen. I figured this meant Windows Explorer was "talking "to the internet behind my back. I didn't care for this so decided to end the explorer.exe process. When I did all the program icons on my Desktop disappeared leaving only the Wallpaper. This seemed odd and led me to think Windows Explorer had it's tentacles into a lot of my computer.
Long story short---After starting my computer normally I now open Task Manager by keying Alt,Ctrl,and Delete simultaneously. This brings up the Task Manager window whenever you do it. I then go to Processes tab go down the list and right click on the explorer.exe process and choses "end task" then chose yes when it asks for verification.
From then on ---to run a program I click on the Applications tab in Task Manager then click on New Task which opens the Create New Task box. I then clic on Browse, then click on the Desktop icon on the left. This brings up a list of all my desktop programs I double clicl on the one I want.It's address appears in the Create New Task box and I click on OK. The program opens.
This may seem like a long way to go to open a program but it has sped up my Internet browsing a great deal (YouTube clips run without interuption etc.)plus once learned it is reasonably quick. I like the fact that Windows Explorer is not running behind the scenes and my CPU usage and memory usage are a third of what they used to be. By the way I use AOL and Mozilla Firefox programs to browse
There is probably a better way to do the same thing and if so I'd be interested in learning about it but this has worked for me.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 11 Aug 2011 10:26 am

explorer.exe is Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer.

Mark Vinbury · Post by **Mark Vinbury** » 11 Aug 2011 10:43 am

OOOOPs!!! thanks --shows you what I know---I'll try to make corrections in my post

admin · Post by **b0b** » 11 Aug 2011 12:01 pm

It's probably not a good idea to terminate explorer.exe. It's the program that connects the shortcut icons on your desktop to programs on your hard disk, among other things. Windows doesn't work right unless explorer.exe is running.

Internet Explorer, the web browser, is iexplore.exe.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 11 Aug 2011 12:11 pm

I have a mid grade 5 year old PC running XP with 3 GB memory on Road Runner Cable modem. After reformatting the C drive and reloading all the drivers and apps, this thing screams! Fastest and easiest fix I have seen for speeding up browsing is to just use the Chrome browser. It does most of what I need a browser to do and opens and plays audio and video in a flash.

Greg

Mark Vinbury · Post by **Mark Vinbury** » 11 Aug 2011 12:26 pm

Is there some way to keep explorer.exe running and not have it constantly talking to the internet and using up CPU and memory. My memory useage is about 280MB without explorer.exe running and if left in the process list it will run up over 1.5GB in an hour or so whether I'm visably connected to the internet or not.

admin · Post by **b0b** » 11 Aug 2011 12:35 pm

Explorer.exe shouldn't be accessing the internet, and it shouldn't have a large memory footprint. On my computer with Windows XP SP3, explorer.exe is using 24 MB of RAM and typically sits at 0% load on the CPU.

I suspect that you have a virus attached to it.

Mark Vinbury · Post by **Mark Vinbury** » 11 Aug 2011 1:01 pm

Thanks Bob. I was suspecting the same thing.
I run Spybot Search and Destroy frequently and it hasn't caught anything that changed the memory gobbling or internet data exchange I attribute to explorer.exe. Got any suggestions ?

Dale Hansen · Post by **Dale Hansen** » 11 Aug 2011 4:13 pm

I had the very same question a couple of days ago.
I found the following page which describes two versions of "explorer.exe". One is legit, and one is a Trojan. The 'legit' Windows version will be located in the folder C:\Windows.
At the link below, they'll guide you through the process of smoking out an imposter.
Hope this helps.

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/proce ... r.exe.html

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 11 Aug 2011 5:42 pm

You mentioned that you use AOL for browsing. After you close AOL (even if you're using aol's webmail instead of their own software interface), it leaves a few different processes running on the computer that you'll spot in the Task Manager. One is called AOLacsd.exe and another is something like WAOL.exe. I have found that these AOL leftovers dramatically slow down my computer. So I "end process" them and then things run much better. Try that and see if it works for you. Do it after every time you close out of AOL. You can alphabetize your process list in task manager to spot them more easily.

Mark Vinbury · Post by **Mark Vinbury** » 12 Aug 2011 11:31 am

Thanks Dale and Jim---I'm still working on the issue. From all appearances the explorer.exe process I have is legit but it may have ties to somthing that is infected.
Thanks for the tip om AOL leftovers. I've noticed they are still running in the background when AOL is not on screen. It really annoys me when some program is talking to the internet wthiout my permission and is slowing my browsing down by filtering everything or just taking up transmission time. ARGGHHHHH

Whip Lashaway · Post by **Whip Lashaway** » 17 Aug 2011 8:12 am

My wife's puter was moving at a snails pace. I upgraded her RAM to 2Gig and it smokes now. I had already ordered a new proc as well so I ended up installing it too. It smokes on loading programs. Stuff that used to take 5 mins to load is now up and running in 5 secs. Amazing what $70 worth of stuff can do!!!