Windows 7 - IE 8 multiple iexplore.exe running in Task Manager

Anyone noticed that IE8 runs multiple iexplore.exe in Task Manager?

And by the way did you notice IE8 behaves differently in that respect when installed on WindowsXP as opposed to Windows 7?

WindowsXP copies of iexplore can use up to 50,000K and every copy uses quite a bit of memory.

Windows 7 copies of iexplore only use about 5-15K.

While using IE8 in WindowsXP I thought I had a malware program running by it using so much memory and exhausted myself trying to run all kinds of scans to root out the offending program only to realize it was IE8 itself. When I uninstalled IE8 and went back to IE7, the behavior stopped.

Just something interesting that might save others the frantic search to root out adware. I suppose the bottom line is DO NOT USE IE8 on WinXP.

It's because of the the Tabs feature and crash recovery.

Internet Explorer help please.

Thanks for the additional info Airbot,

That is what I finally realized but it seems to work much better with Windows 7 than with WindowsXP. The multiple instances were eating up about 10 times more memory on WinXP and really dragging the system down. Windows 7 must be set up to manage the memory much better and my impression is that IE8 runs very well in Windows 7.

I'm really impressed with Windows 7 and ready to buy...

You're welcome.

There's something else when you talking about XP VS Vista/Seven for IE (yeah it's not a "Seven only" feature ).

Under XP IE is a part of windows explorer, since Vista IE is separate and (when you don't turn off UAC) run in protected mode.
So, process managment and memory uses are really different from XP to Vista/seven for IE.

Some of you mentioned Windows 7 / IE8 is less memory intensive, but not for me. I am running Windows 7, IE 8 on a Fujitsu Lifebook T4410 with 2 Gb RAM.

From a fresh boot, I execute a single instance of IE with only one tab being used and access my gmail account: 201, 438 K

I then execute a second instance of IE with only one tab being used and access CNN.com: 196, 403 K

Open a copy of MS Word, ITunes my

(Perfmon)
Standby Memory is about 450 MB
Free Memory is ranges between 3 - 5 MB.

I have run virus scans, malware protection, Windows patches are current and do not see any unfamiliar processes running in tskmgr.

Any suggestions?

After reading this thread and noting the explanation and comments made by Airbot, I looked and IE8 has a Tabbed Browsing Settings section under Internet Options. There is an option to: Only open the first home page when Internet Explorer starts. It obviously (or maybe not) does not appear to be the default. This may be helpful.

I'd recommend going 4 it if your funds permit. Windows 7 is 1 of the best OS Microsoft ever made so far...