Adam Albright wrote:
> This is weird... out of the blue my system which otherwise is very
> speedy dropped to a crawl, everything was running in slow motion with
> the hour glass showing excessively. I had my usual number and type of
> applications running. Brought up Task Manager and was surprised to see
> remaining free physical memory showing 0 MB. Next I went to Resource
> Monitor and sorted by process using the most memory.
>
> Surprise... it was Windows' Explorer and no, Windows Explorer wasn't
> running or even on the Task Bar as a reduced application, yet
> according to Resource Manager it was hogging an absurd 7,5024 KB of
> memory. A shutdown took a staggering 7 minutes, then I rebooted and
> system was back to normal.
>
> What the heck is going on?
>



Well... on this box Explorer is using 8,508KB RAM according to Task
Manager. Resource Monitor shows 163MB's in the commit column and 29MB's
in the working set column.

I see 0 remaining physical memory all the time on this box...doesn't
seem to impact performance. I'm sure you've read the threads on how
Vista manages memory different than XP, using all it can when it's
available and giving back whenever apps need it.

Did you happen to note the number of hard faults for Explorer? Or any
other apps?

Lang

[From a Solaris VM running in Vista Ultimate]

This is weird... out of the blue my system which otherwise is very
speedy dropped to a crawl, everything was running in slow motion with
the hour glass showing excessively. I had my usual number and type of
applications running. Brought up Task Manager and was surprised to see
remaining free physical memory showing 0 MB. Next I went to Resource
Monitor and sorted by process using the most memory.

Surprise... it was Windows' Explorer and no, Windows Explorer wasn't
running or even on the Task Bar as a reduced application, yet
according to Resource Manager it was hogging an absurd 7,5024 KB of
memory. A shutdown took a staggering 7 minutes, then I rebooted and
system was back to normal.

What the heck is going on?

Just out of curiosity, how much memory was explorer using? You said "7,5024
KB", but I'm sure you mean 75,024 KB, right? My explorer process regularly
uses 28,168 KB. Oh no, 27.5 MB! Surely you have enough memory to overcome
explorer using 75 MB?

Robert Firth
http://www.winvistainfo.org


"Adam Albright" <AA@ABC.net> wrote in message
news:7vq8035vn68396111pll2sn0s51hgp9l18@4ax.com...
> This is weird... out of the blue my system which otherwise is very
> speedy dropped to a crawl, everything was running in slow motion with
> the hour glass showing excessively. I had my usual number and type of
> applications running. Brought up Task Manager and was surprised to see
> remaining free physical memory showing 0 MB. Next I went to Resource
> Monitor and sorted by process using the most memory.
>
> Surprise... it was Windows' Explorer and no, Windows Explorer wasn't
> running or even on the Task Bar as a reduced application, yet
> according to Resource Manager it was hogging an absurd 7,5024 KB of
> memory. A shutdown took a staggering 7 minutes, then I rebooted and
> system was back to normal.
>
> What the heck is going on?
>

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:29:31 -0500, "Robert Firth"
<webmaster@winvistainfo.org> wrote:

>Just out of curiosity, how much memory was explorer using? You said "7,5024
>KB", but I'm sure you mean 75,024 KB, right? My explorer process regularly
>uses 28,168 KB. Oh no, 27.5 MB! Surely you have enough memory to overcome
>explorer using 75 MB?

Yea typo, but what is Explorer doing using ANY memory when it isn't
running?

The user desktop is explorer.exe, if no other explorer.exe is running. 75MB
is still a bit excessive for the desktop. You must be running that fancy
Aero stuff, you know that it causes user friction right ?


"Adam Albright" <AA@ABC.net> wrote in message
news:2509031c79to38k66sffvtl7kvrrmun97t@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:29:31 -0500, "Robert Firth"
> <webmaster@winvistainfo.org> wrote:
>
>>Just out of curiosity, how much memory was explorer using? You said
>>"7,5024
>>KB", but I'm sure you mean 75,024 KB, right? My explorer process regularly
>>uses 28,168 KB. Oh no, 27.5 MB! Surely you have enough memory to overcome
>>explorer using 75 MB?
>
> Yea typo, but what is Explorer doing using ANY memory when it isn't
> running?
>
>

Explorer is the desktop, start menu, and taskbar. (The desktop is a folder
window with some attributes set). It also hosts many shell extensions that
run within Explorer's process (like winzip)

7 meg isn't very much for Explorer to use..
"Adam Albright" <AA@ABC.net> wrote in message
news:7vq8035vn68396111pll2sn0s51hgp9l18@4ax.com...
> This is weird... out of the blue my system which otherwise is very
> speedy dropped to a crawl, everything was running in slow motion with
> the hour glass showing excessively. I had my usual number and type of
> applications running. Brought up Task Manager and was surprised to see
> remaining free physical memory showing 0 MB. Next I went to Resource
> Monitor and sorted by process using the most memory.
>
> Surprise... it was Windows' Explorer and no, Windows Explorer wasn't
> running or even on the Task Bar as a reduced application, yet
> according to Resource Manager it was hogging an absurd 7,5024 KB of
> memory. A shutdown took a staggering 7 minutes, then I rebooted and
> system was back to normal.
>
> What the heck is going on?
>

You ridicule others knowledge yet you had no idea that explorer is the name
of the whole shell used by windows?

Wow before you EVER bash someone again I suggest you get a manual and do
some reading

Also it's not uncommon for Explorer to use a ton of memory (especially in
Vista Ultimate with DreamScene). Mine uses around 100MB but that's due to
all of the things I have going on in the explorer process.


"Adam Albright" <AA@ABC.net> wrote in message
news:2509031c79to38k66sffvtl7kvrrmun97t@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:29:31 -0500, "Robert Firth"
> <webmaster@winvistainfo.org> wrote:
>
>>Just out of curiosity, how much memory was explorer using? You said
>>"7,5024
>>KB", but I'm sure you mean 75,024 KB, right? My explorer process regularly
>>uses 28,168 KB. Oh no, 27.5 MB! Surely you have enough memory to overcome
>>explorer using 75 MB?
>
> Yea typo, but what is Explorer doing using ANY memory when it isn't
> running?
>
>

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:59:03 -0400, "Dale M. White -LV32"
<dale.white@NOinsightbb.NOcom> wrote:

>The user desktop is explorer.exe, if no other explorer.exe is running. 75MB
>is still a bit excessive for the desktop. You must be running that fancy
>Aero stuff, you know that it causes user friction right ?

That must be why my hands are chapped...too much friction from using
the desktop. ;-)

I have to agree with Shane, know what you are talking about Adam, especially
because you spend so much time dissing Vista (and windows in general) and
other posters in the newsgroup.
first the process explorer.exe is responsible for many functions on the
computer including the desktop and parts of the file system. You computer
can not run without it, try ending that process and see what happends.
the internet explorer process is called iexplore.exe and ieuser.exe are
processes concerning the internet explorer.
i doubt your resource issue was caused by the explorer.exe process. are you
sure that the rest of the memory on your computer was just not cache memory?
windows will use free memory as a cache until it is needed by other
processes. some update utilities from a variety of vendors can be resource
hogs, that is the most likely bet if you system performance dipped
significantly. Maybe you have some malware on your pc, who knows for sure.

Adam I respect everyone that posts, including you, but you should have more
respect for others. You are articulate in your writing style and you
obviously possess a good knowledge of computers, but temper it with some
respect and courtesy.

G


"Adam Albright" <AA@ABC.net> wrote in message
news:7vq8035vn68396111pll2sn0s51hgp9l18@4ax.com...
> This is weird... out of the blue my system which otherwise is very
> speedy dropped to a crawl, everything was running in slow motion with
> the hour glass showing excessively. I had my usual number and type of
> applications running. Brought up Task Manager and was surprised to see
> remaining free physical memory showing 0 MB. Next I went to Resource
> Monitor and sorted by process using the most memory.
>
> Surprise... it was Windows' Explorer and no, Windows Explorer wasn't
> running or even on the Task Bar as a reduced application, yet
> according to Resource Manager it was hogging an absurd 7,5024 KB of
> memory. A shutdown took a staggering 7 minutes, then I rebooted and
> system was back to normal.
>
> What the heck is going on?
>

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:15:51 -0700, "Shane Nokes"
<Morpheus_Phreak@nospam.msn.com> wrote:

>You ridicule others knowledge yet you had no idea that explorer is the name
>of the whole shell used by windows?
>
>Wow before you EVER bash someone again I suggest you get a manual and do
>some reading

Nice Strawman dummy. I only "bash" smartass types like yourself that
obviously don't have a clue. I suggest the one that should learn
better reading comprehension is you.

I questioned WHY the process takes more than three times the memory
NOT running when the Windows Explorer Applet isn't active or even on
the Task Bar then when it is. That makes no sense since the desktop
remains static, ie the number of shortcuts, gadgets, etc.. is
unchanged and BTW, my desktop is very clean, having my shortcuts
instead under Quick Launch.

This is a classic memory leak "bug" situation in that all the typical
symptoms are there, which apparently flew over the heads of everybody
that responded so far. For your education a memory leak happens when
some process (application or internal process) is diverting memory and
fails to release memory pages that were in use that are no longer
needed. Thus consumption of memory increases for no explained reason
and can in time, stave whatever other processes are running, hence the
typical system of a very sluggish system and why the lay term is often
referred to as a memory leak. Note my use of a question mark int he
subject line of this thread. I haven't tracked it down to be sure
that's what it is, but it sure acts like a memory leak.
>
>Also it's not uncommon for Explorer to use a ton of memory (especially in
>Vista Ultimate with DreamScene).

Again I suggest the one with the reading problem is you. I don't have
Ultimate, didn't say I did, and therefore don't have DreamScene. So
that comment is totally irrelevant to the topic at hand.

>Mine uses around 100MB but that's due to
>all of the things I have going on in the explorer process.

Your desktop details aren't relevant to MY desktop or the next guy's
desktop or the issue at hand either. You must enjoy hearing yourself
talk, since you've contributed zero to the topic of this thread. Any
more bright ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with a possible
memory leak?

For your further eduction (which seems lacking) under Vista a good
deal of the desktop handling is managed by dwm.exe (desktop window
manager) if you enable Aero, applications (if they can) write to
memory buffers which the Desktop manager then manages making the
gee-whiz effects show on screen. You can confirm this checking in Task
Manager.