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Msradell
Premium Member
join:2008-12-25
Louisville, KY

Msradell

Premium Member

[IE] Internet Explorer opening multiple processes

After I've had Internet Explorer open for a while, it starts bogging down and eventually stops. The same problem occurs in IE 8, IE 9, IE 10, and even the beta version of IE 11. I've watched the processes with process Explorer and the amount of memory delegated to the processes (except the 1st one) keeps increasing over time until problems occur. They are normally at least 2 processes open and sometimes 3 or even 4. I tried removing, reinstalling, resetting, etc., with no effect. I'm running Windows 7x64 home premium on a Toshiba laptop with a 3rd generation i3 processor, 16 GB of RAM.

Any ideas and suggestions are appreciated.

BillRoland
Premium Member
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL

BillRoland

Premium Member

I believe there is a registry edit/group policy setting that affects the "process growth" of IE since IE8. I believe you can control the behavior through that.

auggy
Mod
join:2001-12-24
Brockville, ON

auggy to Msradell

Mod

to Msradell
Also, try the following and see if it helps:

IE > Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > remove the checkmark in front of "Enable third party browser extensions" > OK then restart IE.

If that does not help you can re-enable third party browser extensions.

If it does help, you would have to track down the third party browser extension causing the problem.

Also, if the problem persists, does the same issue occur if you restart the computer in "Safe Mode with Networking"?
19579823 (banned)
An Awesome Dude
join:2003-08-04

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Member

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I dunno if this is a possible but is thier a way of disabling MULTIPLE INSTANCES with IE?? (I have MyIE2 and I have 'MULTIPLE INSTANCES' disabled which is why im wondering)

I just tried to look it up but I cant find any info. (I was looking for a reg edit that might work)

IE has tabs now right?? So disabling M.I. wont have any bad effects... (MyIE2 has tabs so I had no problems when i disabled them)

Ahaa
@sbcglobal.net

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Anon

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Re: [IE] Internet Explorer opening multiple processes

Here u go dude:
»www.mydigitallife.info/h ··· of-tabs/
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

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Premium Member

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Why do you suppose that the problem ("bogging down and eventually stops") is caused by having multiple processes? It doesn't seem to me that 4 processes is some big number that the OS can't deal with.

I think that rather, your problem is an ever-increasing memory size. Sounds like something's getting retained longer than it should. And in any case, the memory you need to buffer "what you looked at" is to some extent independent of the process count: it's just a matter of whether you put a certain number of eggs in 1 basket or 4; either way, it's the same number of eggs.

The reason for multiple processes is probably separation of integrity levels: basically, you want to keep executing code from the web page at arms length. You can perhaps turn off 'protected mode' operation and get the process count down, but I wouldn't recommend it.

What period of time are we talking about? And are you actively browsing while IE gets fatter, or is it just sitting there?
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

OZO

Premium Member

said by dave:

it's just a matter of whether you put a certain number of eggs in 1 basket or 4; either way, it's the same number of eggs.

Right. The number of eggs is the same, but the number of baskets is different. And each basket is a valuable computer resource (memory, CPU time, etc)...
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

1) No evidence was provided that 2 processes use more computer time than 1 process. CPU time is used by things that get done, not by things that just exist.

2) The large amount of memory use is process-private data, and most of that is presumably due to web pages visited. The code is shared. So, we have no evidence that the basket is contributing much of anything.
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

OZO

Premium Member

The thing that exists is CPU time spent on switching between processes. That takes computer's (and yours) time... Switching between threads is much quicker, than between processes. Second, I see big difference (in terms of memory, and smaller, but sometimes perceivably noticeable in terms of speed) when I run Iron browser with -single-process (self explanatory) option and running the same multi-tab session without it. That's why I use the option, despite some potential quirks with it. I did not test IE8 (I just using it in single process mode all the time), but I think it's the same here too...

Msradell
Premium Member
join:2008-12-25
Louisville, KY

Msradell to dave

Premium Member

to dave
said by dave:

Why do you suppose that the problem ("bogging down and eventually stops") is caused by having multiple processes? It doesn't seem to me that 4 processes is some big number that the OS can't deal with.

I think that rather, your problem is an ever-increasing memory size. Sounds like something's getting retained longer than it should. And in any case, the memory you need to buffer "what you looked at" is to some extent independent of the process count: it's just a matter of whether you put a certain number of eggs in 1 basket or 4; either way, it's the same number of eggs.

The reason for multiple processes is probably separation of integrity levels: basically, you want to keep executing code from the web page at arms length. You can perhaps turn off 'protected mode' operation and get the process count down, but I wouldn't recommend it.

What period of time are we talking about? And are you actively browsing while IE gets fatter, or is it just sitting there?

I agree, it's probably about the ever-increasing memory size being used, not the number of processes. The amount of memory seems to increase whether I'm browsing or not. Right now I've been about an hour in one of the processes is presently at 1.2 GB, another is at 700 M and the main one (the one where the actual site name shows up in the window title column of process Explorer) is about 55 M. this is using the IE 11 beta but results are similar with the other versions.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave to OZO

Premium Member

to OZO
The context-switch time is utterly negligible compared to the cost of just one round trip on the network.
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

OZO

Premium Member

Correct. But context-switching is happening all the time and many times per second. That's why using multiple threads is always more efficient than using multiple processes.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

In a bit-diddling sense, sure. But in the sense that you can actually measure a difference to system response or throughput under typical desktop user loads, not at all.

Not to mention the context switch isn't actually needed if you have a spare processor core.

You still need a context switch between threads, though the address space descriptors remain unchanged (and the gain there is probably due to no need to invalidate caches).