explorer high cpu usage

Thanks for your reply.

As I said.. and I'll say it again.. at present there's no evidence whatsoever your problem is related to search indexing.

If you think it is, please post an appropriate screenshot.

For example: is indexing shown as complete? If so, nothing for indexing to do...

Now, try a clean boot. Monitor f explorer usage- do you still see the same problem?

Also if you can remove the second disk (unsure what your disk in a caddy might be- presumably a USB disk?)

And try
Reset and Clear Recent Items and Frequent Places in Windows 10
Clear File Explorer and Run Dialog Box History in Windows 10
Open and Use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10

Please advise
a. how things are without the caddy connected
b. after a clean boot as we asked.
Thanks.

Check everything on your desktop- make sure there's nothing unusual.

There is a (technically awkward) diagnostic approach.

Monitor what's happening with Process Monitor (procmon) - free from MS.
This produces a huge log file of everything from registry access upwards.

The log is filterable (the filters are defined in technical terms) - allowing the log content displayed to be reduced.

Start with as little activity on your system as possible, then start logging e.g. when explorer.exe starts to use the CPU excessively.

Stop logging after a minute or so, then try to make some sense of what is happening.

It can help to have a log when your system is quiet to compare of course.

You are of course free to search tenforums or elsewhere for ideas.

That should work, yes.

Yes- simplify, eliminate, reduce... try the simple things...

Ok, start with Process Explorer - that's the simpler of them. Good thing you know of it.

Have you tried a clean boot yet?

Do you use anything that modifies file explorer or hooks into it?