Windows 7 Explorer
Karlyn Hemmerling
After wasting time, as usual, with Dropbox's assistance, I try to ask here. My problem is relatively simple to explain and consists in the fact that if I use Windows Explorer, navigating in the Dropbox folder is torture since any operation it's very slow (creating a folder, copying a file, etc...) while if I use, for example (but it couldn't be the solution) a file explorer like Explorer++ everything works perfectly. Another thing I verified is that if I navigate to the Dropbox folder from a Windows window that opens for example when I want to open/save a file, everything works without problems. The problem remains confined to windows explorer. Can anybody help me? Thank you
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I have 2 instances of Windows Explorer opened in the task manager at random times. It happens when i restart my computer, use it for some time and after a while i notice the fans ramp up, i go to the task manager to find two processes of windows explorer, one is normal in my opinion which has 200-500MB RAM usage while the one is the problem, it consumes 2000MB of RAM (I have only 8 gigs ram so I am always anxious about that). I kill the process with the high ram usage and the computer runs normally. It is also worth mentioning that when i kill the process; the explorer and all the windows and task bar does not close or crash. The computer cools down and everything goes back to normal. The explorer.exe file is also normal. I was hoping that it might get fixed in the update but its still here.
Thank you for much for the suggestion but the issue still remains the same. I am fully updated and for some reason I can not find the feedback hub. It used to be in windows 10 but now when i search for it, it gives me "Feedback and Diagnostics" which has no option to report a bug, apparently there is a option to give feedback though, when you search something on the start menu; on the right top side there is an option to give feedback, just a little tiny button. I did that and lets see what happens...
I am sorry i could not try safe mode before, this time i used it for 30 minutes and the issue still persists. Even after closing all the windows the process remains in task manager with high memory use.
I have the same issue. After few seconds of starting windows, CPU1,3, and 5 go to 100% (I have intel i9-11900K). I know this by checking it on AIDA64 app.
When pressing ctrl+shift+escape the CPU usage goes back to normal, but if I close task explorer it goes back to 100% on CPU1, 3 and 5. This is why I am thinking it is a malicious virus.
So after I looked more, I found out in the details page that there are 2 "explorer.exe" running. If I terminate the second one the issue is solved.
Any idea how can I fix this once and for all without having to terminate explorer.exe each time I start windows? I tried Malware scans and everything stated above with no help.
@Reza_AmeriThank you for the response, I've tried everything you said, no files are corrupted and everything checks out but the error remains, even after windows update I thought Microsoft might fix the issue but it still remains.
For everyday work, Windows10 works great until October 2025 Microsoft provides support , updates go in parallel with Windows11 .
If you want to work, think about a clean installation of Windows10 -> write what you think?
File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application and default desktop environment that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file systems, as well as user interface elements such as the taskbar and desktop.
While "Windows Explorer" or "File Explorer" is a term most commonly used to describe the file management aspect of the operating system, the Explorer process also houses the operating system's search functionality and File Type associations (based on filename extensions), and is responsible for displaying the desktop icons, the Start Menu, the Taskbar, and the Control Panel. Collectively, these features are known as the Windows shell.
In 1995, Microsoft first released test versions of a shell refresh, named the Shell Technology Preview, and often referred to informally as "NewShell".[8] The update was designed to replace the Windows 3.x Program Manager/File Manager based shell with Windows Explorer. The release provided capabilities quite similar to that of the Windows "Chicago" (codename for Windows 95) shell during its late beta phases, however was intended to be nothing more than a test release.[9] There were two public releases of the Shell Technology Preview, made available to MSDN and CompuServe users: May 26, 1995, and August 8, 1995. Both held Windows Explorer builds of 3.51.1053.1. The Shell Technology Preview program never saw a final release under NT 3.51. The entire program was moved across to the Cairo development group who finally integrated the new shell design into the NT code with the release of NT 4.0 in July 1996.
With the release of the Windows Desktop Update (packaged with Internet Explorer 4 as an optional component, and included in Windows 98), Windows Explorer became "integrated" with Internet Explorer, most notably with the addition of navigation arrows (back and forward) for moving between recently visited directories, as well as Internet Explorer's Favorites menu.
Another feature that was based on Internet Explorer technology was customized folders. Such folders contained a hidden web page that controlled the way the Windows Explorer displayed the contents of the folder.
The "Web-style" folders view, with the left Explorer pane displaying details for the object currently selected, is turned on by default. For certain file types, such as pictures and media files, a preview is also displayed in the left pane.[10] The Windows 2000 Explorer featured an interactive media player as the previewer for sound and video files. However, such a previewer can be enabled in Windows ME through the use of folder customization templates.[11] Windows Explorer in Windows 2000 and Windows ME allows for custom thumbnail previewers and tooltip handlers. The default file tooltip displays file title, author, subject and comments;[12] this metadata may be read from a special NTFS stream, if the file is on an NTFS volume, or from a COM Structured Storage stream, if the file is a structured storage document. All Microsoft Office documents since Office 95[13] make use of structured storage, so their metadata is displayable in the Windows 2000 Explorer default tooltip. File shortcuts can also store comments which are displayed as a tooltip when the mouse hovers over the shortcut.
The right-hand pane, which usually just lists files and folders, can also be customized. For example, the contents of the system folders aren't displayed by default, instead showing in the right pane a warning to the user that modifying the contents of the system folders could harm their computer. It's possible to define additional Explorer panes by using DIV elements in folder template files.[14] This feature was abused by computer viruses that employed malicious scripts, Java applets, or ActiveX controls in folder template files as their infection vector. Two such viruses are VBS/Roor-C[15] and VBS.Redlof.a.[16]
Other Explorer UI elements that can be customized include columns in "Details" view, icon overlays, and search providers: the new DHTML-based search pane is integrated into Windows 2000 Explorer, unlike the separate search dialog found in all previous Explorer versions.[17]
Search capabilities were added, offering full-text searches of documents, with options to filter by date (including arbitrary ranges like "modified within the last week"), size, and file type. The Indexing Service has also been integrated into the operating system and the search pane built into Explorer allows searching files indexed by its database.[18] The ability to customize the standard buttons was also added.
There were significant changes made to Windows Explorer in Windows XP, both visually and functionally. Microsoft focused especially on making Explorer more discoverable and task-based, as well as adding several new features to reflect the growing use of a computer as a digital hub.
The task pane is displayed on the left-hand side of the window instead of the traditional folder tree view. It presents the user with a list of common actions and destinations that are relevant to the current directory or file(s) selected. For instance, when in a directory containing mostly pictures, a set of "Picture tasks" is shown, offering the options to display these pictures as a slide show, to print them out, or to go online to order prints. Conversely, a folder containing music files would offer options to play those files in a media player or to go online to purchase music. Windows XP had a Media bar but it was removed with SP1. The Media Bar was only available with Windows XP RTM.
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