How to Restart explorer.exe Process in Windows 10
The explorer.exe process is the user shell for Windows, and is used by such items as the desktop, File Explorer, Start menu, and taskbar. Restarting the explorer.exe process is to stop and start it to effectively refresh explorer.exe. When the explorer.exe process has been stopped (aka: "end task"), you will see a blank black desktop with your mouse pointer showing until explorer.exe has been started again.
The explorer.exe file is located in the C:\Windows folder.
This tutorial will show you how to restart the explorer.exe process as needed in Windows 10.
If you have set to turn off hard disk after idle, then you will experience a delay if you restart explorer since you will have to wait for all disks turned off to spin back up and turn on before explorer is restarted.
Contents
- Option One: To Automatically Restart explorer.exe Process in Task Manager
- Option Two: To Manually Restart explorer.exe Process in Command Prompt
- Option Three: To Exit Explorer from Taskbar Context Menu
- Option Four: To Start explorer.exe Process in Task Manager
1 Open Task Manager.
2 Select Windows Explorer in the Processes tab, and click/tap on the Restart button. (see screenshots below)
OR
2 Right click or press and hold on Windows Explorer, and click/tap on Restart.
3 When finished, you can close Task Manager if you like.
1 Open a command prompt.
2 Copy and paste thetaskkill /f /im explorer.execommand into the command prompt, and press Enter to stop the explorer.exe process. (see screenshot below)
3 Copy and paste thestart explorer.execommand into the command prompt, and press Enter to start the explorer.exe process.
1 Press and hold the Shift + CTRL keys, right click or press and hold on the taskbar, release the Shift + CTRL keys, and click/tap on Exit Explorer. (see screenshot below)
2 If you like, you can use Option Four when ready to start explorer.
This option is for when the explorer.exe process has already been stopped, and you are stuck with a blank black desktop with only your mouse pointer displaying.
1 Open Task Manager (Shift+Ctrl+Esc).
3 Click/tap on File (menu bar), and click/tap on Run new task. (see screenshot below)
3 Type explorer.exe, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
4 When finished, you can close Task Manager if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
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Restart explorer.exe Process in Windows 10
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New #1
Alternate OPTION ONE action:
highlight/select
Windows Explorer Task
open Context menu
(right click selected task)
pick Restart
from the menu
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New #3
Hi
Nice tutorial but unfortunately, doesn't all go according to plan!
I had extremely slow transfer speed from an external HDD with circa 60,000 files (8Gb) of XLS/XML/word/text created in Office 2010 from a W7 machine using USB2 that copied form 7 to Ext HDD in about 30minutes total without issue
the transfer to W10 machine was a joke - for another forum! - but there was an Explorer window hanging for some time so I clicked on red cross and closed it so Explorer shut down and I got Black screen
I ran CTRL/ALT/DEL to open task manager and then "new task" and "Explorer.exe" as Option 4 above and ....nothiogn changed
Tried couple more times and still no change.
Then checked "Processes" and noticed 4xExplorer sessions all doing nothing
Closed 3 of them and tried Option 1 "Restart" as above and Nothing happened
Finally I was forced to shut down PC and reboot
not very clever and after all these years of SW development, its a major step backwards when something this simple fails so badly as is the transfer form HDD to W10 machine - thought W10 was an improvement over W7 but STILL snags that should not exist
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New #4
Hello Jimi, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)
It sounds like you had one stubborn explorer process hanging. If it happens again, end task all explorer processes to see if that may allow you to restart it once they have all finished closing.
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New #5
Hello Brink, one question. I wanted to try your method 2. Just an experiment. Normal user with basic rights - in cmd windows explorer stopped and started just fine. But when I, still as basic user, did cmd > Run as Administrator, explorer stopped fine, but does not start again. And so the only thing remaining on the screen is the command windows. Icons, taskbar, shortcuts, all gone. Any idea why?
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New #6
Hello 91fw, :)
I just tested on my system to see it there may have been a bug, and it worked for me, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't start for you again as well. It doesn't matter if the commands are used in a command prompt or elevated command prompt.
Did you repeat the start explorer.exe command to see if it may work after a second time?
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New #7
Yes, I did repeat. See photograph - you may have to zoom in. I dislike puzzles like this.
Last edited by Brink; 10 Nov 2016 at 15:28. Reason: attached your uploaded image
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New #8
It should, so I'm not sure why it didn't.
You can press Shift+Ctrl+Esc to open Task Manager. Next, click on File (menu bar), click on Run new task, type explorer, and click/tap on OK to restart explorer using OPTION FOUR instead.
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New #9
Thanks for attaching my picture. I did allow this site to use javascript in NoScript, no idea why I had trouble. Back to explorer - yes, I know I can do it via Task manager. But I'm specifically interested in this method 2, because I smell something isn't correct. It should work. Might there be ownership issue? rights issue? Perhaps you can offer some hints of thing what might be responsible. Oh, and thanks for your wonderful tutorials. Windows10 would be unuseable without so many of them.
Restart explorer.exe Process in Windows 10
How to Restart explorer.exe Process in Windows 10Published by Shawn BrinkCategory: General Tips
01 Dec 2019
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