Why does Internet Explorer take more than 200MB of memory?

Answer

The term "Explorer" can be reference in several ways, as the Windows operating system uses three individual types. 1. Internet Explorer - The obvious web browser 2. Windows Explorer - For listing the contents of the hard drive 3. Explorer - the actual GUI (Graphical User Interface) which provides the graphics and "point & click" functionality while running Windows

As 200mb seems an excessive amount for any program to be using, this very likely could be a result of a possible virus/spam or unnecessary programs running in the background.

Try this if you haven't yet done it

There is a fantastic system utility, called Faber Toys. It's mainly developed for power users who want to know what programs are running in the background and the processes as well. It's very similar to clicking CTL-ALT-DEL on your system, but also informs you of what those programs are used for. You can download Faber Toys here: http://www.faberbox.com/fabertoys.asp

After determining which programs are not needed you can then prevent those from starting up automatically by unchecking them in MSCONFIG. MSCONFIG is a system configuration utility in Windows. 1. Go to (start),(run),(type msconfig), (start up tab). 2. Uncheck all programs that start from a fresh boot. 3. After making those changes you must restart Windows. 4. Check to see if the explorer.exe memory usage is the same. If it seems back to normal after that, go back and check the programs you want running at start up one by one to see which program is guilty.

Answer

I doubt it is 200Mb, as that amount would surely overload most pcs. You may mean 200K, but never the less it is a large amount. Run a virus and spyware scan. Also try the disk cleanup utility as cookies and websites are stored onto your computer, eventually eating up a lot of space.

Answer

Explorer alone cannot take more than 200MB of memory, unless a version of windows explorer is corrupt. OR, you are using a bunch of windows explorer related components (like Internet Explorer) that take more than 200MB memory total. Check your Internet cache settings as well.

Answer

Internet Explorer may use a large amount of memory if you have a lot of web pages open, or large pictures in the web pages.

Does it still use a large amount of memory after closing it and then reopening?

Does it still use a large amount of memory after rebooting the computer?

First answer by kwan han. Last edit by Shakenama. Contributor trust: 104 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 189 [recommend question]

Can you answer other questions about Microsoft Windows?