Explorer.exe a Separate Process?

from Stardock Forums
I just downloaded an Icon Packager Christmas Theme and loaded them. Right after I clicked on "Apply", a dialog appeared that said something very similar to "Explorer.exe is currently setup as a separate process. Would you like to change that now?" and offered OK and Cancel buttons. Being unsure of what this was exactly, and figuring I could look into it and always change it later, I clicked on Cancel.

Of course less than 10 minutes later, explorer.exe crashed and I had to restart my PC.

Has anyone seen this before? I haven't. Is this something that may have been changed by another program for a good reason? Or is it something I need to fix?

Thanks.
iconpackager
7,756 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
which package?
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
mormegil's Christmas Time IP.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The Christmas Time (Full Pack) or (Lite Pack)?
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I don't think it has anything to do with which package you use....... IconPackager doesn't like it when Explorer is set to run as a seperate process.

Is this something that may have been changed by another program for a good reason? Or is it something I need to fix?


This is how it's explained in X Setup Pro......

"In Windows, Explorer is used as file manager and as the shell (the interface to Windows). Because of this, crashing the file manager also crashes your shell.

By activating this option, Windows uses an seperate process for each task which is a good idea if stability is your goal, but a bad one if you have few memory (two programs use more memory)."



Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I get this for each and every IconPackage that I apply. I select "no" and all is well...
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I get this for each and every IconPackage that I apply. I select "no" and all is well...


I've always wondered about that, but didn't really want to test it.......... now I know.

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think I only saw that message one time, last year.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, since I never had it crash when installing an IP Theme before, I guess it wasn't running as a separate process then. But it apparently is now! The dialog asked me if I wanted to change it back and not have it run as a separate process - I selected No, meaning leave it as is, and it crashed very shortly thereafter. I figured instead of making a change like that on the fly just because the IP Theme was asking me to was not a good reason to change it. I'd rather investigate it first and then decide which to do.

BTW, it was the Full Pack.