How To: Open a Folder in a New Process in Windows 7

Posted by admin On January - 2 - 2009

Windows Explorer normally opens all folders within a single process.While you could change this via the Folder Options, it would cause all folders to open in new processes. Windows 7 allows you to easily select a single folder and run it in a different process.Having a folder open in a separate process will allow multiple instances of the open folder window to be running with each instance running with a separate explorer.exe process. If one of these instances should close or crash, the other instances would be completely unaffected by it.

This will show you how to open a folder window in a separate new Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) process in Windows 7

Find the desired folder.
Hold down the Shift key and then right-click the folder.
From the resulting context menu, select Open in New Process.

To Always Open Folder Windows in a New Process

This will have Windows 7 to automatically open all folder windows in a separate new process when they are opened.

Open Folder Options, and click on the View tab.
To Enable Automatic Launch Folder Windows in a Separate Process,

Check the Launch folder windows in a separate process box.

To Disable Automatic Launch Folder Windows in a Separate Process

Uncheck the Launch folder windows in a separate process box.

Click on OK.

Note:This can increase the stability of Windows 7 by opening every folder in a separate part of memory. Use this setting if your computer frequently crashes, and you are trying to minimize problems or troubleshoot. Be aware, however, that doing this could slow down the performance of your computer.

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