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For the last few days, I've had a very weird problem where Explorer.exe starts eating all of my system memory (16GB) after opening an Explorer window. If I restart the process and don't open any explorer window, it doesn't consume more than the regular 50-70 MB, but the moment I do, it jumps to 200-500MB and keeps steadily climbing. After hours of research, I came across this question What could possibly cause explorer to "leak" memory? which solved my problem with the "Update 3" part. However, i kept digging and found out it's ONLY the "Show thumbnails instead of icons" option that starts the leakage when checked. Explorer memory usage and Explorer memory leak (can't post images yet since i just created this account).

My question: is there any way to prevent Explorer to try to load on RAM all of my files' thumbnails? Because that's the only thing I can think of that's happening. I really need to have that option checked to see the thumbnails and not have to open each file individually to see what it is. Or if there's another explorer software I can use instead of the default.

Also, I have a dump of the process with the thumbnails option checked, but I don't know if I should just upload it to some random site and paste the link here or if there's an option to attach it to the question.

Fernando Hernandez
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  • Explorer is built right into windows. The only way I have found is a Repair Install and Keep only Data. When reinstalling Apps, use only 64-bit Apps especially context Apps. – John Oct 23 '23 at 17:42
  • Does it happen when booting into Safe mode ? Try also using another user account. – harrymc Oct 23 '23 at 18:40
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    Do you know of any thumbnail handlers you might have installed? Or other kinds of shell extensions? Windows Explorer is very extensible. You might want to try deactivating any non-Microsoft shell extensions, for example using Nirsoft ShellExView. – Daniel B Oct 23 '23 at 19:23
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    Probably a third party DLL loaded in Explorer. If you use Process Explorer, to show all the loaded modules, can you provide that export to maybe a Pastebin? Consider adding some additional columns to help identify the modules. – HelpingHand Oct 23 '23 at 19:25
  • Not sure if I should reply here: @DanielB I dont know what those are, so I'm guessing I don't have anything like that installed. I don't think I've ever installed shell extensions since I don't know what that is. – Fernando Hernandez Oct 24 '23 at 18:23
  • I'm not familiar with Process Explorer that much @HelpingHand. I created a .dmp file: https://gofile.io/d/HIc4bD . Here is a screenshot of the modules i think? https://i.imgur.com/LENhuN3.png – Fernando Hernandez Oct 24 '23 at 18:23
  • I would probably consider the following first: C:\Program Files\CopyTrans HEIC for Windows\CopyTransHEICforWindows.dll,C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CoreSyncExtension\CoreSync_x64.dll,C:\Windows\System32\guard64.dll. As a a test can you rename CopyTransHEICforWindows.dll and reboot? Does it happen? – HelpingHand Oct 27 '23 at 09:57
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    @HelpingHand that was the culprit! I straight up uninstalled the program and no more memory leak :D. Completely forgot I had it tbh. Thanks a lot. I don't know how to close this question? I can't select your answer as a valid one – Fernando Hernandez Oct 30 '23 at 11:43

2 Answers2

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As referenced by @HelpingHand, the file messing up with explorer was one from CopyTrans, a software I had installed a while back and forgot about. Instead of renaming the specific dll, I just uninstalled the program since I no longer use it. Uninstalling this program fixed the issue completely and I no longer have memory leak through explorer.exe.

Fernando Hernandez
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    Your answer should explain how you knew it was that specific third-party application other than being told that was the case. – Ramhound Oct 31 '23 at 03:00
  • @Ramhound I had no idea that was the case?? Had I known I wouldn't have asked here in the first place. My guess is that application was trying to index all of the thumbnails of the hard drive's file using explorer.exe, which caused the RAM usage. Otherwise, I have no idea. – Fernando Hernandez Nov 01 '23 at 15:57
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When considering why a Windows process is exhibiting a memory leak, the first consideration before getting too technical should be what third-party modules are loaded into the process.

In this case, from the dump file of Explorer.exe, the following modules were identified as being third party, primarily based on not being able to load symbols for them from the public Microsoft Symbols server:

  • C:\Program Files\CopyTrans HEIC for Windows\CopyTransHEICforWindows.dll
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CoreSyncExtension\CoreSync_x64.dll
  • C:\Windows\System32\guard64.dll

CopyTransHEICforWindows.dll was chosen first due to the nature of the application. The feedback from the user is that having renamed this DLL or uninstalled the associated product, Explorer didn't load it and the problem has gone.

HelpingHand
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