Solved Two explorer.exe, One taking all of my RAM's Memory

Possible problem with iTunes

AfrimS said:

Here is C:\Program Files - Screenshot by Lightshot.
Iv run the avast uvk script, manualy removed chrome by deleting old_chrome and used the dedicated flash uninstaller going to run the uvk flash uninstaller now after i reboot and do a scan

So after doing the Adobe Uninstallers and rebooting it is still showing up in secunia but google chrome isnt showing up anymore - Screenshot by Lightshot .

EDIT

did a rescan with secunia heres what is shown - Screenshot by Lightshot

Click to expand...

Okay well the only thing that I see in your screenshot that might possibly cause the explorer.exe problem is iTunes. Don't remove it though. I have a test for you to try but I'll post details later as I'm currently at work.

As for the other software - it can be sorted out too.

EDIT: Also have a go at deleting that zero byte folder:

C:\Program Files\005

Next steps

Okay so it's still showing that you've got old versions of Java installed. Have a go at downloading and running JavaRa:

JavaRa download:

Download JavaRA - MajorGeeks

Run the program and use the option "Remove Java Runtime" and try removing all detected installed versions. There's a guide here:

JavaRa : Remove Older Versions of Java & Update to the Latest Version

Note: Personally I don't need Java and don't have it installed. It's been a long time since I used this tool. If you need help with JavaRa hopefully other members will give some advice. As far as I know it's best to fully remove Java then reboot and clean install the latest version.

Re: Chrome

What do you mean by it doesn't show up? Do you mean that it's installed but doesn't show up in Secunia PSI anywhere - even if you scroll down the list of patched software?

If it's working and not shown as insecure then I wouldn't worry about it.

Re ITunes:

Here's something to try regarding your explorer.exe issue. Make a note of this so that you can undo the changes if you need to.

Go to Start > Run then type

services.msc

Press Enter

Scroll down to "Bonjour Service" and right click it. Choose "Properties" and in the window that opens up set Startup Type to "Disabled" and click OK. Close the window. Then reboot.

Then go to C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mdnsNSP.dll

Rename the file mdnsNSP.dll to mdnsNSP.old

Reboot again and check to see if that solved the explorer.exe issue. If the problem remains there will be more things to try.

As for Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 4.x - see the post here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/338117-update-xml-core-services.html

The suggestion is to ignore it. You might want to check if this is correct by posing a question on it in the Windows Updates & Activation section.

As for ITunes - like I said before I don't use it and never have. There must be a way of updating it.

VLC: Just run VLC and check for updates. In the VLC GUI - (Help > Check for updates) The installer should take care of it.

Run a disk check

You've done a lot of work recently and made a few changes. It would be a good idea to run a disk check.

When you don't need to use your computer run a full disk check. It will take some time.

Open an Elevated Command Prompt


In the window that opens type:

chkdsk /r /f

Press enter.

Type Y when the following prompt appears.



Reboot.

Okay I will try the Scan now but also i just noticed that explorer.exe is taking up alot of cpu now aswell, i recall this happening once before but just went away the next day - Screenshot by Lightshot -.

Chkdsk

Suggest running chkdsk only after these steps - http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...l-my-rams-memory-post2955455.html#post2955455

As for Java I have fully uninstalled it with the instructions you had given me but I did not install the newer version but just instead kept it uninstalled and went into my google chrome plugins and disabled java in there.

As for chrome what I meant to say is that Google Chrome is working normaly and is no longer shown as insecure in secunia.

As for the iTunes/Bonjour service thing I did as instructed by disabling it and renaming mdnsNSP to mdnsNSP.old but it is still a .dll file dont really know if i did it correctly heres a screenshot - Screenshot by Lightshot - unfortunately there is still a second explorer.exe showing up - Screenshot by Lightshot -.

As for VLC Media player I had updated it and it works normally and is not seen as insecure according to Secunia


I did not yet do a Disk Check from the Command Prompt but I plan on doing it tomorrow. I did another scan with secunia after all of this and here is what is now shown - Screenshot by Lightshot -.
I did check if there is any windows update and yes there is and i plan on doing the update tomorrow aswell. Also PDF-XChange viewer is still showing up here even though i did remove it.

Windows Updates

Check for Windows Updates. They've just released this month patches. Hopefully that should take care of IE.

As for leaving Java uninstalled - Good move. I haven't needed it in the last year!

Did you manage to delete C:\Program Files\005 ?

It seems from what you're saying that the explorer.exe problem is intermittent. It looks like you'll need to do some more troubleshooting. Will post some suggestions tomorrow.

No I didnt delete the 005 folder it turns out I did not see when you wrote to delete it So sorry about that.
Deleting the file as im writing this and yes there is a windows update available but i plan on doing the update tomorrow

More to try

Okay so install any Windows Updates and delete that 005 folder. Let me know if you have a problem deleting it.

As for PDF-Xchange viewer, does it show up as installed if you run GeekUninstaller? Try removing it that way. Other than that - click on the + sign next to it's entry in Secunia to get the file path.

On another unrelated issue I noticed that McAfee Security Scan is installed. You don't really need it and it usually gets installed along with other software when you forget to de-select the check-box for it when installing flash player or something!

Do you have Explorer pinned to your taskbar by any chance? Like this:



Is so, try right clicking the icon and choose "Unpin this item from taskbar" then click Start > right click My Computer and hold down right click and drag My Computer to your taskbar to create a new pinned shortcut.

Okay so I have removed the explorer that was pinned on the task bar and then i dragged the "my computer" to my taskbar.
As for pdf xchange I was able to remove it and it no longer installed nor a problem in secunia. I have also uninstalled Mcaffe Security Scan.
So as of today I had run the Windows update successfully I did the dskchk as intructed and there was no problem deleting the 005 folder.

After rescanning again with Secunia this is what is now shown - Screenshot by Lightshot -
I dont use itunes so if needed I can uninstall it but asfor Microsoft XML Core services I do not know what this is or if you want me to do something about it.

EDIT iTunes

turns out iTunes is not updated, do you want me to update it or just remove it seeing as how I never use it

iTunes & MS XML Core Services

I'd suggest the following:

Try downloading this patch from Microsoft:

Download MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 3 (Microsoft XML Core Services) from Official Microsoft Download Center

Get the msxml.msi download and save to your desktop then run it. Hopefully that should fix it.

As for iTunes - it's up to you. Try updating it or if you don't need it and won't lose any paid for music - uninstall it. Like I said before I know nothing about iTunes as I've always used alternatives!

So after downloading that patch that you gave me and uninstalling iTunes since I have no use for it I did another scan with secunia and here is what is now shown - Screenshot by Lightshot -. Also when I look into Geek Uninstaller there is 3 MSXML's shown in there two of the SP2's and one of them SP3 - Screenshot by Lightshot -.

Microsoft MSXML issues

That didn't go too well then. I'd assumed that installing it (MSXML 4)would take care of the update. Further research shows that MSXML 4 has been superceeded by MSXML 6 so on that basis I'd suggest uninstalling MSXML 4 then try updating MSXML 3 and MSXML 6. Sorry about that!

Also looking at your logs once more I've noticed that you have utorrent installed. Many utorrent users seem to be reporting issues with an additional memory hogging explorer process being created get after opening the containing folder in utorrent. Have you been using utorrent when you've seen the two explorer.exe problem appear?

It might be helpful if you could run another "scan and create log" with UVK when only one explorer.exe is shown in task manager. Then it might be possible to compare the two logs.

How should i do a scan and create log with only one explorer.exe shown? Usualy after ending the process it comes back like 3-5 seconds later but I could try booting into safe-mode or something else?
Also should i unstall all three MSXML 4.0 and just install MSXML 6.0? not to sure what to do here and as for uTorrent and explorer.exe problem the explorer.exe problem happens no matter what, even if i just boot the pc and dont do anything else

EDIT:
Also what settings should I use for the scan and create log? these settings or something else - Screenshot by Lightshot -

UVK scan settings

Okay so if the explorer.exe issue always happens then you can't get a scan with only one explorer.exe running.

As far as MSXML 4.0 is concerned I'd suggest removing all three that show up in the scan but leave MSXML 3 & MSXML 6 installed and try updating those.

You can run another UVK scan anyway with the following settings applied:

7-Zip?

Since you've removed 7-zip and the issue remains - you could reinstall it but you could also consider other alternatives. Currently I use the 64bit version of Peazip. Link if you're interested:

PeaZip 64 bit | Open and extract RAR 7Z TAR ZIP ZIPX files

Okay so 7Zip was removed a while ago and now just uninstalled winrar, I did install the peazip thing you suggested to me.
I have removed all three MSXML 4.0 and updated the new versions of MSXML 3.0 and 6.0
Here is the UVK scan as requested - https://www.dropbox.com/s/0h7v39v526l1b7z/UVK LOG 12-11-14.txt?dl=0 -.

UVK Scan

Thanks for the log. Winrar still shows up. The log seems to be missing lots of stuff.

It shows:

Scan mode: Hide all Microsoft files, Verify file signatures.
Scan options: Scan all users, Include MD5 hash, Include recent folders.

Would you mind doing the scan again but in the UVK scan options screen choose "None" and all the checkboxes will be cleared. Then apply the ones shown in the screenshot in this post:

http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...l-my-rams-memory-post2957457.html#post2957457

Ignore the "All" checkbox - just select "None" and apply the other settings. At that point don't worry if a tick appears in "All" - just run the scan. Thanks!

Next steps

I'll look at your log tomorrow once you've uploaded it and report if I see any problems.

The next steps will involve some troubleshooting by doing a clean boot as shown in this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

Don't try this yet. Just have a read through it!

I remember doing this before actuary that someone else suggested to me but I had forgotten what the outcome of it was so i will try tomorrow, I need to sleep for now.