How to restart a frozen Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is an essential program manager on the computer, but sometimes this manager also freezes, affecting its use. At that time, the Start menu, Taskbar or applications disappear on the screen. If the computer encounters this situation, users can refer to some of the error correction methods below.

Table of Contents

• How to restart Windows Explorer Windows 11
• How to restart Explorer via keyboard shortcut
• How to end the Windows Explorer process
• How to restart Explorer from the command line
• How to Restart a Frozen Windows Explorer on Windows 10
  • Restart Windows Explorer.exe via Task Manager
  • Restart Windows Explorer.exe from Command Prompt
  • Exit Explorer and then restart it via Task Manager
  • Restart Explorer using batch file

How to restart Windows Explorer Windows 11

Step 1:

Right -click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager in the displayed menu.

Step 2:

To display the new interface, type explorer in the search bar at the top. Right-click on Windows Explorer and select Restart from the menu that appears.

The window, desktop will disappear and the screen will temporarily go blank when Explorer restarts.

How to restart Explorer via keyboard shortcut

Sometimes Explorer will freeze completely or important elements like the Taskbar will disappear. In that case, you can use a keyboard shortcut to open Task Manager and restart Explorer.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard to open Task Manager. Once opened, you can follow the steps above to restart Windows Explorer .

How to end the Windows Explorer process

If the above steps do not work, you can end and restart the Windows Explorer process.

Step 1:

Open Task Manager then find Windows Explorer and right-click and select End task from the displayed menu.

Step 2:

Your screen will turn black but the Task Manager interface. We continue to click on Run new task in the top right corner of the interface.

When the Create new task window appears, type explorer.exe and click OK to relaunch Windows Explorer.

How to restart Explorer from the command line

Step 1:

Press the Windows key and launch Windows Terminal from the Start Menu.

Step 2:

Select PowerShell or Command Prompt and enter the command below and press OK.

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

Step 3:

At this point the / sign will still flash and the screen will turn black. We continue to enter the command below to restart Explorer and press Enter.

start explorer.exe

How to Restart a Frozen Windows Explorer on Windows 10

Restart Windows Explorer.exe via Task Manager

If you're using Windows 10, the easiest way to restart Explorer.exe is through Task Manager.

To restart Explorer.exe in Windows 10, please follow these steps:

1. Open Task Manager by pressing the + key combination and Ctrlselecting Task Manager or right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting Task Manager. Once Task Manager is opened, click on the More details option .AltDelete

2. When the full list of processes is displayed, scroll down until you find the Windows Explorer process. Then right-click on this process and select Restart.

3. The Explorer.exe process will terminate and restart automatically. During this process, you will see the desktop disappear for a short while and then reappear.

4. Now that Windows Explorer has restarted, you can close Task Manager.

Restart Windows Explorer.exe from Command Prompt

This method allows you to restart the Explorer.exe process directly from Command Prompt. This method works in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

To restart Explorer.exe from Command Prompt, please follow these steps:

1. Open Command Prompt .

2. When the Command Prompt opens, type the command taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe & start explorerinto it and press Enteron the keyboard. This command will terminate explorer.exe and then immediately restart the process so you can see your desktop again.

3. After entering the command, you will see the Windows desktop disappear for a second and then restart. You can now close the Windows Command Prompt because the Explorer.exe process has been restarted.

Exit Explorer and then restart it via Task Manager

If you are using Windows 7 or any version of Windows, you can also restart the Explorer.exe process by first ending the process in Task Manager and then running it again from the Create New Task dialog box .

To restart explorer.exe by ending the process first, you can do the following steps:

1. Open Task Manager. Once Task Manager is open, scroll through the list of processes until you find the explorer.exe process and right-click on it. When the context menu opens, click the End Process option.

2. When you try to end the explorer.exe process, you will need to confirm the request. Click the End Process button to confirm.

3. Now, you will see Explorer disappear and you are left with a blank screen and Task Manager. In Task Manager, click on the File menu and select New Task (Run...) .

4. When the Create New Task prompt appears, type explorer.exe in the Open: field and then press the OK button.

5. The Explorer.exe process will start and you will see the Windows Desktop again. Now, the Explorer.exe process has started and you can see the desktop. Just close the Task Manager and you are done.

Restart Explorer using batch file

If you want to be able to restart Windows Explorer faster and avoid using Task Manager altogether, you can put together a simple batch file to do the job.

Fire up Notepad or your favorite text editor. Copy the following text and paste it in 3 separate lines in a blank text document.

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
start explorer.exe
exit

Next, you’ll need to save the file with a “.bat” extension instead of “.txt”. Click the File menu and then click Save as . In the Save as window , choose a location to save the file and then, on the Save as type drop-down menu , select “All files (*.*)” . Name the file whatever you want, followed by the “.bat” extension, and then click Save.

Save the batch file you just created wherever you like. You can then create a shortcut to the batch file that you can place wherever works best for you — on your desktop, Start menu, taskbar, or even add it to the Power Users menu you get when you press Windows + X .

Once your shortcut is ready, you'll have one-click access to restart Windows Explorer whenever you need it.