Explorer must die!

[Narcolepsy]

Just a handy tip for those of you yearning for RAM or battling stuttering problems:

This is for Windows XP:
Press ctrl-alt-delete and navigate to the processes tab. Find "explorer.exe" in the Image Name column, and click End Process. This will kill the start menu, taskbar, desktop, etc., leaving only your background wallpaper. It will also free up about 20 - 30 MB of RAM - memory that Half-Life 2 desperately craves.

From there, click File -> New Task -> Browse, and find the Half-Life 2 shortcut. Simply run the game from here, and if your computer is like mine, enjoy slightly better performance.

Hey, every little bit helps, right?

To clear up even more RAM, try End it All. It kills every unnecessary program, though make sure to tell it to keep Anti-Virus/Firewall if you need it.

 

[Vegeta897]

Eerrmm. I suppose it does have something to do with it. Sorry! ;(

 

[Winston]

dont know what os you're using..but xp usually restarts the explorer.exe although 20-30mb ram more would be good for some ppl.

 

[Narcolepsy]

Eerrmm. I suppose it does have something to do with it. Sorry! ;(

Was this a quick edit or something? Is there something you need to tell me Vegeta?

dont know what os you're using..but xp usually restarts the explorer.exe although 20-30mb ram more would be good for some ppl.

I have XP, and it stays down for me.

 

[Ikerous]

I've done this before -_-
Aw what we do for more ram.

 

[Vegeta897]

Was this a quick edit or something? Is there something you need to tell me Vegeta?

I haven't the slightest idea of what you are talking about.

In my opinion it is an excellent topic.

(Oh, and explorer stays closed as long as you keep the task manager open)

 

[we11er]

Yeah this is just what I've been using!

And by the way, there is a developers secret to close explorer safely. Click Start->Shutdown, hold down Ctrl Shift and Alt, and click Cancel. Explorer will close

 

[PvtRyan]

You could also use Aston shell. Uses less RAM and looks prettier.

www.astonshell.com

 

[Mountain Man]

If you're really 1337, you'll make Half-Life 2 your shell!

 

[Przemek]

I've been using the kill-explorer.exe-technique for a long time now. Explorer won't restart when shut down from the task manager - you can run the game through the "New Task" dialog and quickly close the task manager after pressing OK, before the game starts up - sometimes those 3MB's taken by the taskmanager can save your life during the game
After quitting the game, press CTRL+ALT+DEL or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to access the taskman and re-launch "explorer.exe" the same way you started up half-life (File -> New Task, explorer.exe > OK).