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UpdatedJul 3, 2017, 10:01 pm EST| 4 min read
If your Taskbar, System Tray, or Start menu acts up, you might be tempted to restart your PC. Instead, you can usually just restart Windows Explorer—& Windows makes it pretty easy.
Windows Explorer (Explorer.exe) is a program manager process that provides the graphical interface you use to lớn interact with most of Windows—the Start menu, taskbar, notification area, và File Explorer. Occasionally, any of these pieces that biến hóa the Windows graphical shell can start acting strangely or even hang. Just like you can close và restart an tiện ích that’s acting up, you can also cđại bại & restart Windows Explorer. Restarting Windows Explorer can also be handy if you’ve sầu just installed a new ứng dụng or applied a Registry tweak that would normally require you to restart your PC. Restarting Explorer doesn’t always work in those cases, but it’s easy enough to try it first if you want to lớn avoid a full restart. Here are a few ways you can restart Windows Explorer.
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Option One: Restart Explorer from Task Manager
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Task Manager offers the traditional way to lớn restart Windows Explorer. It was overhauled for Windows 8 and 10, so we’ve sầu got instructions for you whether you’re using those or Windows 7.
Restart Explorer from Task Manager in Windows 8 or 10
In Windows 8 or 10, open Task Manager by right-clicking any empty area on your taskbar & then clicking “Task Manager.” You can also hit Start & tìm kiếm for “task manager,” which might be more useful khổng lồ you if you’re looking at the Start screen instead of the desktop in Windows 8. And if you favor keyboard shortcuts, just press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
If your Task Manager window looks lượt thích the example below, clichồng “More details” at the bottom to lớn see the detailed interface.
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The “Process” tab of the Task Manager window shows you apps & background processes currently running on your PC. Scroll down the các mục of what’s running & find “Windows Explorer.” If you currently have a File Explorer window open, you’ll see it right near the top in the “Apps” section. Otherwise, you’ll find it toward the bottom of the “Background Processes” section. To restart, just select “Windows Explorer” and then click the “Restart” button.
That’s all you should have to bởi. It may take a few seconds & things like your taskbar and Start thực đơn may disappear momentarily, but when it restarts, things should behave better & you can exit Task Manager.
Restart Explorer from Task Manager in Windows 7
Windows 7 doesn’t offer a simple restart commvà lượt thích Windows 8 and 10 bởi. Instead, you’ll have to lớn over the process & then restart it as two separate steps. Right-click any empty area of the taskbar and choose “Task Manager.”
In the Task Manager window, switch to the “Processes” tab. Select the “explorer.exe” process and then cliông xã the “End Process” button.
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In the alert window that pops up, click “End Process.”
Your taskbar and notification area (as well as any open File Explorer windows) should disappear from view. Sometimes, Windows will restart the process automatically after a minute or so, but it’s easiest just khổng lồ go ahead và restart it yourself. In the Task Manager window, click the “File” menu & then cliông xã “New Task (Run…)”.
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In the Create New Task window, type “explorer.exe” inkhổng lồ the “Open” box và then cliông chồng “OK.”
Your taskbar and notification area should reappear và hopefully, whatever problem you were having will be resolved. You can cđại bại Task Manager.
Option Two: Exit Explorer from Your Taskbar & Start Menu
There is also a handy little shortcut for ending the Windows Explorer process. In Windows 8 and 10, you can hold Ctrl+Shift while right-clicking any empty area of the taskbar. On the modified context thực đơn, cliông xã the “Exit Explorer” comm&.
In Windows 7, cliông chồng Start & then hold Ctrl+Shift while clicking any open area on the Start menu khổng lồ see the “Exit Explorer” command.
When you select these commands, they bởi vì not restart Windows Explorer on any version of Windows—they simply over the process. Windows will often restart the process automatically after a minute or so, but if it doesn’t, you’ll need to vì so manually. Just press Ctrl+Shift+Esc khổng lồ open Task Manager. Cliông xã the File menu and then choose “Run new task” in Windows 8 or 10 (or “Create new task” in Windows 7). Type “explorer.exe” into the run box and hit “OK” khổng lồ relaunch Windows Explorer.
Option Three: Restart Explorer with a Batch File
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If you’d prefer being able to restart Windows Explorer more quickly & avoid using Task Manager altogether, you can put together a simple batch tệp tin to vì the job.
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Fire up Notepad or your text editor of choice. Copy the following text & paste it inkhổng lồ three separate lines in your blank text document.
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exestart explorer.exeexit
Next, you’ll need to save the file with the “.bat” instead of “.txt” extension. Clichồng the “File” thực đơn và then clichồng “Save as.” In the “Save As” window, choose your location và then, on the “Save as type” drop-down thực đơn, choose “All files (*.*).” Name your tệp tin whatever you want, followed by the “.bat” extension and then clichồng “Save sầu.”
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Store the batch tệp tin anywhere you lượt thích. You can then create a shortcut to lớn the batch file that you can place wherever it makes the most sense for you—on your desktop, Start thực đơn, taskbar, or even add it to lớn the Power Users thực đơn you get when you press Windows+X.
Once your shortcut is in place, you have sầu one cliông chồng access lớn restarting Windows Explorer whenever you need to lớn.
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