handle leak explorer.exe

Christopher King 0 Reputation points
2026-08-02T23:01:52.9166667+00:00

webroot tells me I have a handle leak in erplorer.exe

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures
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  1. Alex-L 10,770 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-08-04T09:16:04.23+00:00

    Hi Christopher King

    If the PC is running normally and there are no symptoms such as File Explorer crashes, steadily increasing memory usage, or performance degradation, there is likely no immediate cause for concern. However, if you want to verify whether the warning is a real issue or a false positive, you can monitor explorer.exe with Microsoft Sysinternals Process Explorer and watch the Handle Count over time.

    A true handle leak would typically show the handle count continuously increasing without dropping. If problems develop later, third party shell extensions are a common area to investigate.


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  2. Bulldog 3,760 Reputation points
    2026-08-03T00:41:55.8333333+00:00

    How is the handle leak in explorer.exe affecting your computer?

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