In File Explorer sometimes there are 5 or 10 instances of Firefox all running at the same time. Is this normal?
I don't need to understand why so many instances of Firefox run in File Explorer. I'd just like to know if that is normal operation. Thanks!
Chosen solution
hi mike, yes what you're observing is normal - firefox is a multi-process application, which is running tabs and other tasks in separate processes for security, stability and performance reasons: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Overview
Read this answer in context 1Additional System Details
Installed Plug-ins
- Shockwave Flash 32.0 r0 OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Widevine Content Decryption Module provided by Google Inc
Application
- User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:70.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/70.0
More Information
Chosen Solution
hi mike, yes what you're observing is normal - firefox is a multi-process application, which is running tabs and other tasks in separate processes for security, stability and performance reasons: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Overview
Modified by philipp
It is quite normal to see more Firefox processes running.
- one process for the main Firefox thread (user interface)
- one or more content processes, see:
Options/Preferences -> General -> Performance
remove checkmark: [ ] "Use recommended performance settings" - one process for the compositor thread
- one process for the WebRender when this feature is enabled
You can find the current multi-process state on the Troubleshooting Information page (about:support).
- "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" -> "Application Basics":
Multiprocess Windows
Remote Processes
See also the Remote Processes section further down for more detail.