Windows File Explorer taking massive amount of memory and system hangs

[SoggySherry]

I have a fairly new Windows 11 Pro system that runs a couple of simple applications 24x7. Everything works normally at first, but after a couple of days of uptime, things start getting weird on the system. Today, the desktop background was gone, and none of the icons had their text underneath. Right click doesn't work (or it works so slowly that it seems like it is not working--nothing happens). The shutdown button doesn't work. Nothing happens when I click the button that has shutdown/restart, etc underneath it.

The only way to reboot then is to ctrl-alt-del and get Task Manager up, then use that menu to sign out and sign back in, then I can do a restart using the normal button. I have to reboot every couple of days to keep things normal.

While the Task Manager was up I noted memory sizes and Windows Explorer had a huge memory. No folders open, but it was consuming 1,966 MB of memory!! (After the restart, it says 43.8 MB). I can't take a screenshot of Task Manager because the Windows PrintScr doesn't work when it's like this, and the app I use normally to do screen grabs fails to run with an error (only when this kind of problem is going on).

I upgraded this system from a low end Asus laptop running W10 Home with only 4GB of memory, same apps, though now they are slightly upgraded versions, as I got the latest version of everything when I commissioned the new machine. That W10 system was really stable and could run for weeks with no problems.

I have been suspecting a memory leak somewhere, but never expected to find it was Windows Explorer. Here are details on the computer:

Processor Intel(R) Celeron(R) N5105 @ 2.00GHz 2.00 GHz
Installed RAM 12.0 GB (11.8 GB usable)
Device ID
Product ID 00331-20020-00000-AA798
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display
Edition Windows 11 Pro
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎3/‎25/‎2023
OS build 22621.1992
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22644.1000.0

Microsoft Windows 11, version 22H2 on x64
- Machine: Jasper Lake Client Platform
- Intel(R) Celeron(R) N5105 @ 2.00GHz
- Total physical memory: 12132 MB
- Free physical memory: 8908 MB
- Memory in use: 26%
- System locale: 'en_US'

Display
-----------------------------------------------
- Displays Connected: 1
- Display 1, Primary
- DisplayDevice ID: \\.\DISPLAY2
- Display Device: Generic PnP Monitor
- 32 Bits Per Pixel
- Resolution: 1280 x 720
- Origin: (0,0)
- Display Adapters:
- Intel(R) UHD Graphics
- Intel(R) UHD Graphics
- Intel(R) UHD Graphics

Audio render devices
-----------------------------------------------
- Speakers (USB Audio Device)
- SHARP HDMI (2- HD Audio Driver for Display Audio)

After a reboot, with all my normal stuff running (all auto-started). Memory is 30-40%, CPU is 20-30%.
Primary applications that run all the time are
- OpenCPN, which gets GPS and other input via (USB) 2 serial ports, and sends a little data out once a second via UDP, one on a local network and one to a specific IP address on the net. There is a large user group and no one has been complaining of any issues on Windows.
- mosquitto (MQTT server) that gets a small amount of data via 1 MQTT publisher (on a different system) via local wifi once a second
- Node-Red system that subscribes to the MQTT data from the 1 publisher and also reads data from a modbus system via a (usb) serial port. The Node Red system just keeps text logs and graphs, nothing very fancy. 90% node-red off-the-shelf display nodes and a few function nodes with custom javascript of my own code, doing calculations and logging to couple of text files every 10 seconds.
19 Jul 14:50:46 - [info] Node-RED version: v3.0.2
19 Jul 14:50:46 - [info] Node.js version: v16.15.1

I don't know how to track down what the problem is.
Any guidance?