Windows Defender/Software Explorer

Question

I've been having performance issues and was advised by the community to use the Windows Defender to determine what was running on my computer.  Under the Software Explorer in Windows Defender, I currently have five Windows Internet Explorer running.  All the versions have identical information and were installed on the same date.  The only thing that's different is the process ID.  Can anyone explain to me why I would need five of the same version of this software?  If I don't need them, would it matter which one I delete?

Answer 1

Hi,

IE uses smaller instances of itself to support Tabs and Restoring pages. This method uses considerably

less memory than totally separate instances of the browser open for each page.

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Other methods to check your start up and running programs :

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

How to troubleshoot performance issues in Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950685

Optimizing Microsoft Windows Vista Performance

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959062

To see all that is loading bootup - wait a few minutes without doing anything - then Right Click

TaskBar - Task Manager - take a look at Appplications - Processes - Services - this is a quick

reference (if you have a little box on Lower Left - Show for All Users then check that).

How to Check and Change the Startup Programs in Vista

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/79612-startup-programs-enable-disable.html

A quick check to see which are loading is Method 2 there - using MSCONFIG then post a list of

those here.

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Tools that should help :

Process Explorer - Free - Find out what files, registry keys and other objects processes have open,

which DLLs they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns

each process.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Autoruns - Free - See what programs are configured to startup automatically when your system

boots and you login. Autoruns also shows you the full list of Registry and file locations where

applications can configure auto-start settings.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Process Monitor - Free - Monitor file system, Registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

There are many excellent free tools at Sysinternals

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

WhatsInStartUP - Free - This utility displays the list of all applications that are loaded automatically

when Windows starts up. For each application, the following information is displayed: Startup Type

(Registry/Startup Folder), Command -Line String, Product Name, File Version, Company Name,

Location in the Registry or file system, and more. It allows you to easily disable or delete unwanted

programs that runs in your Windows startup.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/what\_run\_in\_startup.html

There are many excellent free tools at NirSoft

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html

Window Watcher - Free - Do you know what's running on your computer? Maybe not. The Window

Watcher tells all, reporting every window created by every running program, whether the window

is visible or not.

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptwinwatch.asp

Many excellent free tools and an excellent newsletter at Karenware

http://www.karenware.com/

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Refer to this thread for many more excellent tips however be sure to check your antivirus

programs, update major drivers and BIOS, and also troubleshoot with the cleanboot method

first.

Performance and Maintenance tips

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/thread/19e5d6c3-bf07-49ac-a2fa-6718c988f125

Hope these help.

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Rob Brown - MS MVP - Windows Desktop Experience : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.