windows 10 Explorer.exe is stuttering my PC

[Barebuns]

For about a few months now I've noticed that my PC randomly stutters for a second every once in a while. Its especially noticeable when watching videos as the video randomly stutters and is stuttering for about a second, audio is unaffected during this time. I downloaded Bitsum's project lasso to try and remedy the issue and I noticed the main culprit to be explorer.exe which every once in a while, seemingly randomly spikes my CPU usage enough for it to lag everything. I recently upgraded my PC (CPU, ram, mobo) and I noticed no change in the problem so my best guess is that its a windows 10 problem.

 

I'd greatly appreciate any help with this issue as it has been driving me crazy for months.

My specs:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

16 GB ripjaws DDR4 3200Mhz ram

Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti 6GB

Running windows on 256gb Crucial SSD

Using 1TB hardrive

[Mateyyy]

Did you not reinstall Windows after upgrading?

[Barebuns]

2 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

Did you not reinstall Windows after upgrading?

I did not reinstall Windows after upgrading, the problem has been present since before I upgraded as well.

[Mateyyy]

Have you done any virus scans? I'd suggest reinstalling Windows either way.

[Barebuns]

Just now, Mateyyy said:

Have you done any virus scans? I'd suggest reinstalling Windows either way.

I have Avast and it hasn't detected anything. I'd rather not reinstall windows as I do not wish to lose any files. Is there an alternative?

[Mateyyy]

I'd try scanning with something like Malwarebytes too.

Honestly when changing PC specs like the CPU, motherboard or RAM, I've always run into problems with Windows similar to the one you're describing, even though I get that this started happening even before upgrading. I can't really think of any reason why explorer of all things would cause this, other than malware. Maybe also try cleaning up junk files and make sure you've still got at least 20-30GB free on your SSD.

[Barebuns]

Just now, Mateyyy said:

I'd try scanning with something like Malwarebytes too.

Honestly when changing PC specs like the CPU, motherboard or RAM, I've always run into problems with Windows similar to the one you're describing, even though I get that this started happening even before upgrading. I can't really think of any reason why explorer of all things would cause this, other than malware. Maybe also try cleaning up junk files and make sure you've still got at least 20-30GB free on your SSD.

I'll try Malwarebytes. I have about 80 GB free on my SSD. Is there a way for me to reinstall Windows without losing my files?

[Mateyyy]

2 minutes ago, Barebuns said:

I'll try Malwarebytes. I have about 80 GB free on my SSD. Is there a way for me to reinstall Windows without losing my files?

The Windows Installer has an option I believe that keeps some files but honestly I've never tried it and probably never will, it's always better to just do a clean install. Can you not just copy the files onto the HDD or an external drive?

[Barebuns]

1 minute ago, Mateyyy said:

The Windows Installer has an option I believe that keeps some files but honestly I've never tried it and probably never will, it's always better to just do a clean install. Can you not just copy the files onto the HDD or an external drive?

I should report that Malwarebytes didn't find any major problems. I have an HDD installed in my PC, would reinstalling Windows on my SSD have no impact on the files on the HDD?

[Mateyyy]

2 minutes ago, Barebuns said:

I should report that Malwarebytes didn't find any major problems. I have an HDD installed in my PC, would reinstalling Windows on my SSD have no impact on the files on the HDD?

I'd check this thread out, see if anything helps: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/high-cpu-usage-on-windows-explorer.3431312/

No, it won't impact the files on your HDD. If anything, you can unplug the hard drive while installing Windows just to make sure that you don't accidentally format it or anything else.

[Barebuns]

2 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

I'd check this thread out, see if anything helps: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/high-cpu-usage-on-windows-explorer.3431312/

No, it won't impact the files on your HDD. If anything, you can unplug the hard drive while installing Windows just to make sure that you don't accidentally format it or anything else.

The thread mentions a shortcut without an icon, I do not have that on my desktop. I'll try a clean install which I'm sure will fix the issue. Thanks for the help.

[Cassiano]

TL;DR: I fixed this issue by disabling the automatic color change of windows title bars to match the (slideshow) background image.

 

To see if this affects you, try opening several windows (the more there are open, the more dramatic the stutter will be). Then, change the color of windows title bars on the Windows control panel. If you experience a dramatic stutter, that's it. Just choose a color and disable the automatic color changer.

 

I found it when noted that some people were disabling the background slideshow, which to me made little sense. But the color change of all windows probably forces the OS to reinstantiate all windows, including the ones that are not visible. To a programmer, this is a typical (and nooby) error that causes severe performance issues.

 

People are also noting that the existence of a corrupt PDF file on the workspace may cause these symptoms. Easy to check out.

 

To finish, never start your troubleshooting process by a drastic measure like downgrading or reinstalling drivers, apps or even the entire OS. You wouldn't believe that this PC which is my daily driver was last clean installed back 10 years ago with Windows XP and was upgraded to every Windows version until this one (W10) including Vista. Also, like the Ship of Theseus, all of its hardware was upgraded, except the original HD that today is used only as a backup. And it can run Microsoft Flight Simulator (haven't tried Crysys - not my style).

[TripleCharged3]

1 hour ago, Cassiano said:

TL;DR: I fixed this issue by disabling the automatic color change of windows title bars to match the (slideshow) background image.

 

To see if this affects you, try opening several windows (the more there are open, the more dramatic the stutter will be). Then, change the color of windows title bars on the Windows control panel. If you experience a dramatic stutter, that's it. Just choose a color and disable the automatic color changer.

 

I found it when noted that some people were disabling the background slideshow, which to me made little sense. But the color change of all windows probably forces the OS to reinstantiate all windows, including the ones that are not visible. To a programmer, this is a typical (and nooby) error that causes severe performance issues.

 

People are also noting that the existence of a corrupt PDF file on the workspace may cause these symptoms. Easy to check out.

 

To finish, never start your troubleshooting process by a drastic measure like downgrading or reinstalling drivers, apps or even the entire OS. You wouldn't believe that this PC which is my daily driver was last clean installed back 10 years ago with Windows XP and was upgraded to every Windows version until this one (W10) including Vista. Also, like the Ship of Theseus, all of its hardware was upgraded, except the original HD that today is used only as a backup. And it can run Microsoft Flight Simulator (haven't tried Crysys - not my style).

I have been searching for a fix for this strange issue, making multiple tickets at work and then when the IT company takes over my computer they change all the backgrounds to black, and that fixes the issue. I have the backgrounds still changing but disabled the automatic color change and it fixed it! It's been driving me CRAZY and you posted this fix an hour ago on a nearly 2 year old thread. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!