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      - IE and Explorer
        Create separate threads for Explorer

Section(s): IE and Explorer
Published on Apr 20, 2004.
Last Modified on Apr 20, 2004.
Last Modified by Wayne Maples.
Rating: Not Rated

By default, the Desktop, Taskbar, and Explorer run in a single process using multiple threads. To set NT so Taskbar and Desktop will run in one process with each instance of Explorer in a separate process, you can apply the following Windows NT / Windows 2000 Registry hack :

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Name: DesktopProcess
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1 separate process for Explorer
Value: 0 Explorer shares process with Desktop and Taskbar

Each new instance of Windows NT Explorer.exe will get its own thread. If this causes shell problems or for background see Q181562.