Current running programs

[lori.padgett]

My computer has been running slow and Internet Explorer is constantly shutting down and refreshing and I believe this is due to having too many programs running on my user account. All other user accounts on this computer are running fine. I have opened my Windows Defender program clicked on Tools and Software Explorer and viewed all current running programs. Some I knew that I could disable or remove entirely, however, there are a few that I am unsure about. There are 3 open Internet Explorer programs and the specs are...

File name: iexplore.exe
File size: 638232
File path: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
Process ID: 4020
Date installed: 12/15/2010 5:15:28 AM

The other two programs have the same specs with the exception of the Process ID's which are different.

My question is...will it be alright to disable and/or remove any or all of the Internet Explorer programs? I need to know what programs need to run constantly and what programs do not. Thanks for any help you can provide.

[pip22]

The 3 iexplore.exe entries are "processes" and they belong to Internet Explorer. As you open more tabs in IE, it creates another iexplore.exe process.

You cannot disable or remove any of these.

[jenae]

Hi, well if you were to end these processes then Internet explorer would stop running and as this is your browser you would have NO internet. IE and Chrome will open a new process for each new tab (and others such as Flash, add on's etc..) when you are on the net, I have three Chrome processes running in task manager at the moment this is by design.

I believe Firefox does not use this core distribution you might find it better, however if you post your specs we would be able to advise you better. Have you used programs to clear your temps and cache like CCleaner etc.. also run Malware Bytes.

[cluberti]

Well, you can control this for IE, at least - browse to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main in the registry, create a new DWORD called TabProcGrowth, and set it to 0. That will force IE to run all tabs and the frame in a single iexplore.exe process, although that disables a lot of security and tab crash recovery.

[jenae]

Hi, thanks for that, you can also add to the start command to achieve this, point is it is outside convention, and more important not the solution to the op's problem. We need to wait till we see the specs and the problem is reported as being specific to one user account .. could be the account is corrupt most of us run well with the defaults so I do not support mods for this. Thanks PIP you got in before me.