Windows 10: Explorer.exe causing serious lag

So I've been dealing with this issue for YEARS! For some reason, explorer.exe is causing lag on my computer. I've read numerous other users having the same issue but nothing seems to come about to fix it.


It simply causes everything to slow down, even though the CPU and RAM usages isn't crazy and not near 100% for CPU, Memory or Disk usage. I initially thought it was an issue with Chrome as it uses a lot of resources, but closing it and reopening it never really helped. I use to simply restart my computer and that would fix it for a few days. Then I started noticing the task bar would randomly disappear and the desktop would go black if I was simply dealing with the lag long enough, and then about 5-10 second later everything would come back and miraculously my computer would start running great again. I do a lot of video editing on my computer, so I can't always restart my computer when it starts to lag, and the random lag is just really annoying and doesn't always happen while rendering videos - it's 100% random and usually happens every couple days or so. It simply delays EVERYTHING I do mouse clicks or keyboard button presses by about a second or 2. It also happens out of nowhere. I found that once I have lag starting, if I open the task manager and find explorer.exe usually running at around 50,000k memory which is higher than normal that I've seen, and I right-click it and hit end task, and then click File, then "Run new task" and restart explorer.exe, that everything starts working fine again. This prevents me from needing to restart my computer to resolve the issue, and all my other programs are still up and running during that process too. But the lag goes away for a couple more days before I need to do it again.

I've tried factory resetting my computer back to new configuration, didn't change anything. I also tried formatting the hard drive and doing fresh install of Windows 10, didn't help. I do receive Windows 10 updates regularly usually once every week or 2, but never noticed any changes to this issue at all. Nothing I've found online fixes the issue as well. It's just really annoying that this has been an ongoing issue, not with just me, but many other people and Microsoft can't resolve the problem.


Again, my available memory, CPU usage and disk usage when it's lagging shows perfectly normal and nowhere near 100% for any of them. Hell, CPU usage is rarely even 50%, even while I'm rendering videos, and memory usage is rarely over 70% even with a lot of programs open or with Chrome running numerous tabs. And disk usage for the most part sits at 0%. I haven't seen any type or correlation between the lag caused by explorer.exe and the CPU, memory or disk usage at all.


Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

:)

 

Random lag spikes

Hi,

We would like to know more about your lag issue:

• What browser are you using when you experience a lag?
• Does the lag occur in a particular game?

In the meantime, we suggest you run the System Maintenance troubleshooter. Here are the steps:

• Press Windows Key + X.
• Click on Control Panel.
• Select Troubleshooting.
• On the left pane, click on View All.
• Click on System Maintenance to run the troubleshooter.

Looking forward to your response.

 

Windows 10: Serious Lag Times

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft community.

This issue may happen due to system file corruption.

I suggest you to follow the below methods and check if it helps.

Method 1: I suggest you to run System file checker. System File checker (SFC) scan is done to check if there are any corrupted system files that could be causing this issue. Kindly
follow the below given steps:

• Press Windows key + X, select
  Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.
• In Command prompt type sfc/scannow and press enter.

• Restart the computer.

Method 2: If no corrupted system files were found in the previous state, then I suggest you to try the following steps to employ the DISM command lines:

• Open command prompt by pressing Windows key + X and selecting “Command prompt admin”.
• In command prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each command:
  • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth
  • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Cleanupimage
  • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
• Close the command prompt and restart the PC and check if it works.

You may refer to the below article and check.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-specifications

Hope this information was helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to assist.

 

File Explorer Scroll Lag

Hello, I just did this and still the lagging continues. I want to point out that the lag occurs only when I scroll with the mouse, when I click and scroll the lag does not occur.