Thanks. I have tried detailed vs thumbnails but that made no difference.

I am really confused why I get the same error message (cannot delete or rename file as another person or program ia using this file) for the same file, even after rebooting windows several times in a row.

It appears there was a known issue with avi files prior to service pack 2, but I am specifically using h.264 mp4 files.

Not only is this slowing down my video rendering by decreasing the cpu resources available for that program, but it is also increasing heat build up by maxing out the cpu to 100% when I am doing something cpu intensive (rendering a video file).

I've got to figure this out as it has basically decreased the computers processing power by 50%.

Get Process Explorer (same site as Autoruns).

When you can't delete a file, use Process Explorer's Find Handle or DLL to find the process that is holding a lock on the file.

Well, here's an update...

It appears I had some dll conflicts. The computer came loaded with Roxio LE and I installed Roxio creator 2009 on it. Also, my Blackberry Manager installed a Roxio "media manager" on the computer as well.

Starnge, but even after uninstalling Roxio update manager, it would "reinstall" itself after rebooting. Bizarre...

Anyway... I ended up going into regedit and deleting every entry that referred to "Roxio" AFTER I had uninstalled all of the programs associated with "Roxio."

I also uninstalled Quicktime and Realplayer and reinstalled them, then reinstalled
"just" Roxio creator 2009.

Thus far, it "seems" that the problems I was having with explorer.exe have mostly dissipated.

Thanks for the pointers, suggestions, and links for the freeware programs. They all helped "tune up" my operating system.

Thanks for the feedback and input as what would have caused the bloated issue of explorer

cheers ...