Windows Explorer seems to run out of resources until Explorer.exe is killed and a new Explorer.exe process is ran again

Almighty1 · Jul 5, 2021

It seems that after a few hours of uptime, Windows Explorer will become sluggish and the entire system is seriously lagging, functions which include Task View, Widgets and double clicking the Date/Time on the taskbar would no longer have a response. This is even after changing in the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\Windows so that Windows SharedSection=1024,20480,x where x has been changed to both 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192 which did not make a difference. What values have you tried for the Desktop heap size?

johnlgalt · Jul 5, 2021

Default. But I'm an edge case, for sure, because it would probably take days for it to go stupid on my machine.

I Haven't seen it noticeably increasing in size, though.

It's currently occupying 143+ MB in Task Manager.

I'm taking a trip out of town, and I never let my computer sleep / hibernate, so we'll see what it looks like when I get back several hours from now.

unifex · Jul 5, 2021

Does not seem to show that problem.

Almighty1 · Jul 5, 2021

You wouldn't be able to see the problem from task manager itself as it can happen in hours or days and I am not using anything other than the browsers on a notebook with 32GB RAM since the issue is Windows have a certain amount of resources available which are known as GDI among others. People have had to use this registry hack even since the Windows XP days which was also used in 7/10.

ryo · Jul 6, 2021

Not sure whether it is related to your issue, but I notice Windows 11 consume higher memory compare to Windows 10 even during idle. Maybe there is some bug that cause memory leak somewhere.

JAM83 · Jul 6, 2021

ryo said:
Not sure whether it is related to your issue, but I notice Windows 11 consume higher memory compare to Windows 10 even during idle. Maybe there is some bug that cause memory leak somewhere.

What are your PC specs? Mine are 16GB RAM, 8-Core CPU, and an SSD. . . . I do NOT get those issues

Almighty1 · Jul 6, 2021

JMedlock83 said:
What are your PC specs? Mine are 16GB RAM, 8-Core CPU, and an SSD. . . . I do NOT get those issues

My specs is a Dell XPS 15 9570 Notebook with 32GB RAM DDR Hynix, Intel Core i7 8th Generation 8750H 2.2Ghz 6 Core CPU, Toshiba 1TB NVMe KXG60ZNV1T02 but it's a notebook which can have higher CPU % usage because of the heat which may or may not be fixable with a replacement Thermal Interface Material since I had the problem with high CPU usage with other systems 16 years ago which lowered the CPU usage when the Thermal Interface Material was replaced and remember it's a production system so I am a power user running a lot of things as I also make over $US300k-$US500k worth of gains in investments using it running ThinkorSwim software. The issue is the system is fine with 20% CPU time but then it will seriously lag like it will take 5-10 seconds before it will respond to input when the CPU hits 80-90%. Some of the things I am running could have GDI resource leaks as I do have software that 99% of the people would probably not use. Since Windows 10, there are no hacks that would work to modify the system to give bigger amount of GDI resources.

Almighty1 · Jul 6, 2021

ryo said:
Not sure whether it is related to your issue, but I notice Windows 11 consume higher memory compare to Windows 10 even during idle. Maybe there is some bug that cause memory leak somewhere.

It's not memory that is the issue as Windows had always had limited amounts of resources as you are talking about system memory which is not related to this issue. Windows had always had a limit of 64KB (yes, that's KiloBytes) each for the GDI and User heaps which does not matter how little or how much RAM one has since this is also known as system resources.

What are the GDI heap and the USER heap?

The GDI (graphical device interface) heap is one of the systemwide resources in the Windows environment. Its counterpart is the USER heap. Each is limited ...

kb.iu.edu

What are System Resources?

www.netinbag.com

I found some more info:

How to increase the maximum amount of GDI Object for Windows 10?

Searching the web and not finding a sufficient answer I have to ask again: Is there any way to increase the maximum amount of GDI Objects for Windows 10? The application i'm using is written in VB...

stackoverflow.com

Update/Add GDIProcessHandleQuota capability · Issue #2740 · actions/runner-images

Information Increase the maximum amount of GDI Object for Windows to maximal decimal value (65536) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/sysinfo/gdi-objects https://stackoverflow.com/quest...

github.com

User Objects - Win32 apps

User interface objects support only one handle per object. Processes cannot inherit or duplicate handles to user objects. Processes in one session cannot reference a user handle in another session.

docs.microsoft.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/SolidWorks/comments/f424au

But it seems I was incorrect earlier as others have on Windows 10 (tested on 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909 and 2004), it can be changed as follows:

For GDI handles change the following Registry Keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota
Range: 256 - 65,536. Default value: 10000

For USER handles change the following Registry Keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\USERProcessHandleQuota
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\USERProcessHandleQuota
Range: 200 - 18,000. Default value: 10000

Update:

It seems like I am having the lag as soon as I login to Windows before I run any apps/programs even when the CPU is at 15%.

Almighty1 · Jul 7, 2021

I think I fixed the problem today as it seems that it's related to the Power Plan, I am always plugged in so basically I changed from:

Processor Power Management:
Minimum processor state:
On battery: 5%
Plugged in: 5%
Maximum processor state:
On battery: 100%
Plugged in: 100%

to:
Processor Power Management:
Minimum processor state:
On battery: 5%
Plugged in: 100%
Maximum processor state:
On battery: 100%
Plugged in: 100%

without rebooting...
and now even though the CPU is still at 50%, the system is no longer sluggish

unifex · Jul 8, 2021

If my CPU was at 50% all the time, I would investigate.

johnlgalt · Jul 8, 2021

Almighty1 said:
I think I fixed the problem today as it seems that it's related to the Power Plan, I am always plugged in so basically I changed from:

<snip>

without rebooting...
and now even though the CPU is still at 50%, the system is no longer sluggish

That explains why mine is using nothing. I always use the Ultimate Performance power plan.

Almighty1 · Jul 8, 2021

unifex said:
If my CPU was at 50% all the time, I would investigate.

View attachment 2279 View attachment 2280

50% is actually normal on laptops due to lack of cooling compared to desktops because remember that if it runs at higher temperatures, it also pushes the CPU to close to 100% as I am actually running at close to 98% most of the time since the post. Probably need to replace the Thermal Grease as that would knock down CPU usage because it transfer heat better.

johnlgalt · Jul 8, 2021

Huh?

Uh, the more utilization you have the higher the temps. Not the other way around.

Almighty1 · Jul 8, 2021

johnlgalt said:
That explains why mine is using nothing. I always use the Ultimate Performance power plan.

That's the other issue. I added Ultimate Performance Power Plan from the command line/PowerShell but it still is not showing up on the system after a reboot. It seems that systems are picky especially notebooks after some time as when it's new with the same thing running, it will always have low CPU % times but once it ages, 2 years in my case, it needs to have the Thermal Interface Material replaced which will push down temperatures a lot and also CPU time. From experience, if it hits close to 100% like it is now, it is usually because of heat. This problem is more evident in a laptop/notebook because of airflow compared to bigger sized machines. The only thing is that I have read that notebook laptop CPUs of the last few years are very picky about Thermal Grease because unlike desktop Heatsinks, it is not as tight fitting so the Thermal Grease will dry out very quickly. So I will need to see what other people used and then do the repasting when I also get my Intel 210AX WiFi 6E card in a few weeks and see if it makes a difference.

johnlgalt · Jul 8, 2021

Or, you have some 3rd party / OEM software that is hiding it. Which could also be interfering with other aspects of your Win11 install as hardly any OEM-specific software offerings, particularly those that help 'manage' their products, are fully Windows 11 compliant yet.

Almighty1 · Jul 8, 2021

johnlgalt said:
Huh?

Uh, the more utilization you have the higher the temps. Not the other way around.

Except 80% of the utilization is coming from System Idle so it's not the utilization itself, it is related to the Thermal Paste as I need to find something to figure out the temperatures. Basically, it's what's known as the TIM drying out or pump out. I had the same high cpu issues with Windows XP back in the 1990s and 2000's which new thermal paste had always fixed as the temps were lower after the repaste.
This thread explains it well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/j4kms0

Almighty1 · Jul 8, 2021

johnlgalt said:
Or, you have some 3rd party / OEM software that is hiding it. Which could also be interfering with other aspects of your Win11 install as hardly any OEM-specific software offerings, particularly those that help 'manage' their products, are fully Windows 11 compliant yet.

The problem happens with windows 10 as well since about a few weeks ago and I haven't changed or added anything. I know Dell's Data Collector can be a culprit so I turned it to manual and made sure it's not running by refreshing services.msc.

johnlgalt · Jul 8, 2021

Almighty1 said:
Except 80% of the utilization is coming from System Idle so it's not the utilization itself, it is related to the Thermal Paste as I need to find something to figure out the temperatures. Basically, it's what's known as the TIM drying out or pump out. I had the same high cpu issues with Windows XP back in the 1990s and 2000's which new thermal paste had always fixed as the temps were lower after the repaste.
This thread explains it well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/j4kms0

Uh, no.

Almighty1 · Jul 8, 2021

johnlgalt said:
Uh, no.

Until you have the problem, you won't know because the Thermal Grease could have dried out. I haven't been active in taking apart machines regularly like I did 12+ years ago. Since remember if the TG is failing, then it won't transfer heat as well which will cause the CPU to throttle due to the high temps and that also increases CPU utilization. As a Astrophysicist, I believe experiments and the results more from the experiments which I will know in a few weeks time when I replace the Thermal Paste except need to find out what is good and what is not that is good performance wise and also does not need frequent replacing. Remember this is a notebook and Dell who OEMs from Quanta and Compal is not exactly known for good cooling. Even during the days of the Dell Inspiron 8200's which are from the late 1990s, I had 3 of them. They were also doing 80%+ CPU utilization after some time of use and when the thermal interface materal was replaced with either Arctic Silver 5 or Nanotherm PCM+, the temps went down significantly and the CPU never hit more than 40%. Laptops/Notebooks do not run at the lower temperatures as desktops do and the CPU Utilization % is always higher. That's why unlike desktops where I can use Motherboard Monitor 5 to monitor the temperatures, it's harder to do with a notebook.

Almighty1 · Jul 8, 2021

Also, it is a known problem with the Dell XPS 15 9570 which is what I am using as the comments should be useful info:

How to Fix Throttling on the Dell XPS 15 series

So, you’ve already maxed out your Dell XPS 15 with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and the best 1TB NVMe SSD for the money—now your Dell XPS 15 is as good as it gets, right?

www.ultrabookreview.com