Restarting Windows Explorer Without Restarting Your Computer

Posted September 25, 2006 at 11:04 PM by Ben Nadel

Tags: Work

Reader Comments

that saved me !!! totally awesome thank you so much your co worker is amazing

I will pass that on. Thanks!

I love the internet for these problems. I had this exact problem, googled a few words, came across your web log, tried the suggestion and presto things worked again.

Glad you are happy. I was pretty stoked to find out that this could be done.

Hi,
But How Can I restart the Windows Explorer without Restarting computer in programmatic way in C#?

thanks.

Hi,
But How Can I restart the Windows Explorer without Restarting computer in programmatic way in C#?

thanks.

That I have no idea.

Thank You, worked out for me.

OMG I am so glad I finally decided to google this....my computer has been force quitting explorer on its own for DAYS now and now I know what to do instead of restarting completely! THANK YOU!

@Val,

Glad you like. When I was shown that, it rocked my world.

Thanks for this, I have been having enormous problems with my explorer interface, like you said, without it is windows without the windows!

Sometimes it just takes the easy fixes...I have been looking and thinking about various complicated fixes!! Once again thanks!

All that does for me is open up a new My Computer window x.x

dude u rule!!!!! thank you so much for saving me a couple hours of bordem

@Frank,

Ha ha, awesome!

Thanks man, that just saved me a ton of trouble! w00t!

wow this really helped, thanks so much or should i say thanks martin

I have learn a lot from here You can help me for working in VB. because i liked the VB application very well ,mainly while creating the text box we will face lot of challenges.

You're GAY!!!!!!!!

IT DOESN'T WORK.
NOTHING HAPPENS WHEN I DO THAT....

Thank you so much! I am so happy to have Explorer working again (even if it is a piece of shit.) :)

it is not working for me.the explorer keeps restarting again and again is the another way?

it is doesnt work on windows7..only opens up either config forlder ("."), and I have no idea what I am looking for in there, cant find a file named explore.exe..either folder with a libraries ("explorer.exe", explorer, explorer.exe) feeling lost..I cant restart a comp right now, and for the future, is it possible to restart a windows explorer without restarting the comp..?? can anyone help? will appreciate any advice, I am only a user, and dont know much about programming, or task commands stuff..

@Di,
A variation on this is as follows (and this works in Win7, too):
1. Use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Windows Task Manager.
2. Make sure the tab labeled "Applications" is selected.
3. Click the button labeled "New Task...". The "Create New Task" dialog should appear.
4. Type "explorer" in the box labeled "Open".
5. Click "OK".
This should start the Explorer process. It may also open a Windows Explorer window which you can then close.

@Di,

You can also use the "Processes" tab in Windows Task Manager to forcibly end the "explorer" process.

Post A Comment

Comment Etiquette: Please do not post spam. Please keep the comments on-topic. Please do not post unrelated questions or large chunks of code. And, above all, please be nice to each other - we're trying to have a good conversation here.

Please review the following issues:

Author Name:
Author Email:
Author Website:
Comment:	Supported HTML tags for formatting: <strong>bold</strong>   <em>italic</em>   <code>code</code>
	Remember my information
	Subscribe to comments
	Send me a copy of this comment