every 10 or so mins i have 2 or more explorer.exe running.
i have to taskmanager the extra ones to get windows to open.
and 5-10 mins later i will jhave 1-4 running.
and is there a way to keep only one running.i hope i don't have to format again.
norm

Hi Norm,
This will most likely fix your multiple explorer's running problem.
1. Double-Click on "My Computer"
2. Click "Tools" -- "Folder Options"
3. Click the | View | tab
4. Un-check [ ] Launch Folder Windows in a separate process
5. Click [OK]
Cheers,
Christian

thanks for the reply,i been tearing my hair out trying not to format
otherwise my machine is running great.
i will post a followup and let you know if it worked
thanks again
norm

Launching each folder window in its own process won't open extra explorer.exe's. they just open a new thread in explorer.exe. To verify this, open task manager right click the task bad>task manager. Then click view>select columns.Put a checkbox in "thread count"
NMow you can see the thread count of each process.

Norm,

I hate to say it, but I think right now you have to fear for the worst ... You might be infected with a computer virus.

Try doing a virus scan if you haven't done so already. If you don't have a virus scanner installed, use the online anti-virus scanner from Trend Micro (http://housecall.trendmicro.com/).

About 3 weeks ago, my dad's notebook, after couple nights used by my brother, was infected by virus I think. Although I didn't check this with any virus scanner, I realized that there are several exe-s running in the background with filenames such as "1.exe", "2.exe", "explorer .exe", "svchost .exe". Note that the last two exe-s have a single space before the extension. As you probably noticed, there are several regular svchost.exe run by the system in the background. To regular users "svchost .exe" would definitely mask its existence. So is "explorer .exe". I immediately check all the background applications there were running on the notebook, and deleted all the unknown/irregular exe-s.

One week later, I finally took the time to check the notebook for virus using Trend Micro's online scanner, and although I've deleted those unknown exe-s (which were probably worms or something), there were still 2 viruses found.

Well, that's my story. explorer.exe should only have 1 instance in Task Manager. If you have more than 1, a virus or some kind of worm is probably infected explorer.exe or something else, causing multiple instances of explorer.exe. Do a virus check and hope it'll find something. If not, my best advice would be to re-format and re-install Windows again.

solid

Christianb ,it worked
no more 2 explorers running.
virus scan and trojan scan turned out fine
and all is well now.
thanks for all the replys
now when i goto task manager there are loads of explorer page faults.
hmmmm
thaqnks
norm

i told homeboy to check out epxlorer threads, not page faults.

Anyhoo, good deal.

Also, i will kick your @ss at Ageof mythology tonight.

Hi Norm,
I'm glad things are working. Duhmez what you were describing about threads is incorrect. A process means another .exe, a thread means another stream of processing within an .exe. If you have the "start new instances of explorer in a separate process" option disabled then you'd be correct. Now that Norm's issue has been fixed he too could observe multiple threads.
Cheers,
Christian