Windows 7: explorer.exe eating up resources

Explorer is eating up about 70% of my processor usage, all the time.
If I disable it through the task manager's resource monitor, the desktop is unusable.
What can I do to free more of my CPU when I need it?
I run Windows 7 on a Dell Precision T3500 workstation that is a little sluggish.
Thanks for your help

Is this a new install? It may be indexing your drive(s) which can take a few hours if you have a lot of stuff, expeciall like videos and images, should go away on it's own after a bit...

No, it is not new but the initial installation year and a half old. It is something wrong with it and I wonder how can I restore the system to the original configuration?
Obviously I don't have the installation CD/DVD as I would format drive C: and do a clean install.

Hi, welcome to the forums

You may want to perform a full system scan using MalwareBytes and see if it comes up with anything.

Alternatively if your machine came pre-installed with Windows 7 then you can run the manufacturers restore utility. Normally you will get a quick display message when the machine first boots up.



OS

Thanks OS!
I actually ran restore but it went just a couple weeks back to a point where a major update was installed. And it did not fix my issue.

What make and model is your machine?

Dell Precision T3500 workstation

I ran Malwarebyte's and found just minimal problems that were removed, and explorer.exe still uses up to 70% of my processor's resources slowing down any application I run on the machine.
Any other ideas how to stop that?
Thanks

Launch msconfig, and on the startup tab, disable all, tehn apply, and reboot. See if it is any better. If it is you can one by one re-enable startup items. If not, then on the Services tab, check the "Hide all Microsoft Services" box, then select Disable all, then reboot. If still nothing, try downloading a trial version of System Mechanic and run a full scan. That is a great utility for finding hard to trace "weirdness" and slowness.

did that today not sure if theres somethink what should be enabled tho , only just installed anti spyware

dam rong section please remove and sorry lol