Problem with explorer.exe maxing out CPU

[momditty]

I seem to be having a problem with explorer.exe maxing or almost maxing out my CPU. It happens when I boot my computer. When I'm on the web. Whenever I open a folder it takes forever, especially My Music folders. Is there any way to fix this without doing a complete recovery? Will a non-destructive recovery work? Will I have to reinstall all the software again? I'm using XP with SP2. All my antivirus and anti spyware are up to date. All programs are run once a week to find and fix problems, which has found nothing in the past 2 weeks. There also seems to be a problem with Spy Sweep and the explorer.exe.
Anyone have any ideas. I've found where there was a problem a few years back when SP1 came out but nothing dealing with SP2.

[DigitalJunkie]

My guess is you have too many files in folder(s) & root directory. 1. If you are still using FAT32 file system, change to NTFS file system. 2. Don't put too many folders on root directory, there are limitations on this. Try creating subdirectories! 3. Try not have too many files in a single folder either. Windows Explorer will be indexing the files in a folder, like your music folder(s).

Finally, don't forget to defrag. & clean your registry every few weeks!!!

[momditty]

1. It is a NTFS file system. 2. How many folders on the root directory are too many, and how do I fix this? 3. How many files in a folder are too many? This problem just started about 3 weeks ago, and nothing had changed immediately before that or in the past 3 weeks.

We do a defrag and scan disc every week in addition to all the other prevetative programs. Thanks.

[DigitalJunkie]

In my music folders, I try to create for a folder for each artist, then subdirectoies for different albums or file types to keep my music organized. This way each folder does not have too many files.

I used to have Spy Sweeper, however I don't use it anymore. I believe, your Explorer trying to index your files while Spy Sweeper is working with Explorer to monitor your files. Anyway, can Spy Sweeper be set up to exclude certain folder not to be monitored?

[momditty]

In my music folders, I try to create for a folder for each artist, then subdirectoies for different albums or file types to keep my music organized. This way each folder does not have too many files.

I used to have Spy Sweeper, however I don't use it anymore. I believe, your Explorer trying to index your files while Spy Sweeper is working with Explorer to monitor your files. Anyway, can Spy Sweeper be set up to exclude certain folder not to be monitored?

I usually shut down Spy Sweeper when it happens. I've checked smaller folders, they will open faster but the explorer.exe still maxes out the CPU. I've got the music divided into 10 different folders. Inside some of those folders are subfolders. I can't even get to them. It doesn't matter which one I open. It still gets maxed out. I just clicked on a folder with only 585mb in it and it maxed out.

[DigitalJunkie]

May be you can try other anti-spyware programs to see that would help or not. As you mentioned earlier, your anti-virus software did not find any problem! So, I'm assuming your system is clean.

But, in any case. Did you also use any free online virus checking services available to double check?

[momditty]

May be you can try other anti-spyware programs to see that would help or not. As you mentioned earlier, your anti-virus software did not find any problem! So, I'm assuming your system is clean.

But, in any case. Did you also use any free online virus checking services available to double check?

Every week we run, Spy Sweeper, AT&T Anti Spy, Adaware, Spybot Search & Destroy, Norton 2007 Antivirus, Defrag, Error Check, Window Washer, Delete cookies, Temp files and history and Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. All are up to date. I think if there was something there something we run would have found it. I did contact HP the manufacturer of the PC and they suggested I uninstall and reinstall SP2, in order to get a fresh copy of IE. I'm trying to do that right now. The first time I did it, I got an error message that it couldn't continue and automatically removed what it had installed. I am trying to reinstall it with a different disc . Any suggestions for a free antivirus in case this doesn't work? Thanks.

[DigitalJunkie]

I used to have Norton Anti-Virus also, but I found it to be a big resource hog so I changed to NOD32 instead. Norton was also a bitch to uninstall, too! You'll need to get their tools to uninstall Norton.

As to any free anti-virus programs? Try the free GriSoft AVG!

GriSoft AVG Anti-Virus & Others: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

[Dark Messenger]

Just a quick question for you....when you reboot windows do you get a message stating that there is some problem shutting down either 'explorer.exe' or 'iexplore.exe'?

[flux252]

might be virus...or might be hardware failure...happened to me once...explorer.exe was maxing out...i checked my fan and it stopped functioning...so maybe you should check...

[siodine]

The first thing I would do is open up the task manager and right click on explorer.exe, then click "end process tree". Everything should be closed now except for the taskmanager, now click File->New task, type in "explorer.exe".

This should have effectively closed every program running on your computer, and now only the default programs should be running. I'm not sure if this will work with anti-virus software installed though.

[momditty]

The first thing I would do is open up the task manager and right click on explorer.exe, then click "end process tree". Everything should be closed now except for the taskmanager, now click File->New task, type in "explorer.exe".

This should have effectively closed every program running on your computer, and now only the default programs should be running. I'm not sure if this will work with anti-virus software installed though.

I ended up doing a destructive recovery. I started putting all the software back in and had no problems til I put 2007 NAV back in. I got an error that said it was incompatible with Zone Alarm. The two worked fine before the recovery and I'm using both together on our 2 laptops. Yes, there are still times when explorer.exe maxes it out. Is there a known problem between 2007 NAV and Zone Alarm? Any other suggestions?

[MoonMan]

I had this problem with Win2k ages ago and no one knew what to do.. but after doing a fuckton of digging, this is what stopped that:

Turn off any spyware blocking programs like spybot and all its little addons and clear out your hosts file. Seriously, remove almost all of it (if not all of it). Reboot and see what happens. That may help, but if it doesn't then no harm done (as you can just reapply everything).

[momditty]

I went back in and stopped Spy Sweeper from starting when the computer starts. Checked Task Manager again and so far after an hour everything seems to be alright. Nothing is maxing out anymore. Also tried running Norton again, (last time I tried doing a scan, it took 5 hours to go through 217,000 files). It's been 2 1/2 hours and it's gone through 700,000 files out of over a million. I guess the problem was Spy Sweeper. Thanks to all who tried to help. Maybe this will help someone else.