Win 11 - Explorer.exe memory leak

Started by Globespy, October 04, 2021, 06:55:33 PM

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Globespy

I read an article on 'PCGamer' (there are other tech sites reporting this) and checked it out for myself.
Indeed, the more file explorer windows you open, the larger the memory load becomes (which is expected).
However, when you close all those windows the amount of memory being used remains the same, but even worse is that it just keeps getting larger every time you open an explorer window until you either force a restart of explorer.exe or reboot your PC.
Was hoping a program like 'Process Lasso' would have something to help here, but I haven't been able to find a solution?

Appreciate any tips on PL functionality that may be able to help.

Jeremy Collake

There isn't a great solution to a memory leak. Simple memory trims aren't going to be effective.

The only viable solution is to use a Watchdog rule to restart Explorer.exe when its memory usage grows over a certain size.

However, since Explorer is a special system process that may have multiple instances, it isn't clear how well such a rule would work.

As a side note, I've personally been quite frustrated with Windows 11 bugs. They are really slowing me down, impacting day-to-day work. I hope a miracle happens and suddenly things come together!

Software Engineer. Bitsum LLC.