There are times when Windows Explorer gets stuck or even the Start Menu or the task bar is not responding. The best solution is to restart Windows Explorer without restarting the system.
In this article, we will discuss different ways to restart Windows Explorer to fix the issues without restarting the system.
Table of Contents
What is Windows Explorer/File Explorer
Windows Explorer, also known as the File Explorer is the soul of Windows. It is the User Interface through which a user connects to all the applications and the services the Windows is hosting.
The process running behind Windows Explorer is Explorer.exe. It is also the process that runs the Desktop, taskbar, notification tray, Start Menu, all of the Dialog Boxes and Prompts, and controller Interfaces.
Without the explorer.exe process, Windows would simply not be operatable under a graphical user interface.
How to restart Windows Explorer
There are ways to restart the explorer.exe process. Let’s start with the basics and work our way up from there.
Restart Windows Explorer using the Task Manager
Windows Task Manager is a resource management tool for Windows that can manage processes, tune up performance, and manage Windows startup and services.
It is also used to kill applications and processes that have become unresponsive or would not entirely quit and keep running in the background.
- Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keyboard shortcut keys to open the Task Manager.
- Click on More details at the bottom.
- Under the Processes tab, right-click the Windows Explorer process and then click on Restart.
- This will automatically shut down the explorer.exe process and then restart it again. All applications and folders using the process will close.
Stop and start Windows Explorer manually
- Under the Processes tab, right-click the Windows Explorer process and then click on Go to details.
- The Task Manager will then automatically jump to the Details tab and highlight the explorer.exe process. Now right-click the process and select End task.
- A confirmation dialog box will appear. Select End process to terminate the process. Note that this will also close all applications using explorer.exe and will remain closed unless the process has been restarted.
- Usually it takes a few minutes for Windows 10 to automatically restart the process. If you do not wish to wait, click on File in the top-left corner of the Task Manager and then select Run new task.
- In the Create new task dialog box, enter explorer.exe. You may check the checkbox below to run the process with administrative privileges if you want to run Explorer as an administrator but it is not recommended in normal circumstances.
- Click Ok. This will start Windows Explorer with all the user interface elements.
NOTE: Steps 1, 2 & 3 can also be achieved altogether by holding down Ctrl + Shift and then right-clicking on an empty space on the Taskbar.
Click on Exit explorer to kill the explorer.exe process. Then continue with steps 4, 5 & 6 to restart the process, by accessing the Task Manager with the shortcut keys Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
If you create a New Task by entering explorer.exe, while it is already running and can be seen in the Details tab, it will only open a new Windows Explorer window. This would not be equivalent to restarting the explorer.exe process.
Restart Windows Explorer using command line
The explorer.exe process can be restarted to achieve the same effects with the help of two simple commands. These can be run on both Command Prompt and PowerShell.
Launch Run by pressing the Windows Key + R and enter:
- cmd for Command Prompt
- powershell for Windows PowerShell (Or pwsh for PowerShell Core)
- In the command line, enter the following command to terminate the explorer.exe process:
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe - Once it successfully runs, enter the following command to restart the process:
start explorer.exe
Restart Windows Explorer using an automatic batch file
- Go to the Desktop and right-click on any blank space to open the Context Menu. Expand New and then select Text Document.
- Open the text document and paste the following script in it:
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe<br>start explorer.exe<br>exit - Now click on File and then Save as.
- Enter the name of the file as RestartWindowsExplorer.bat, and select Save as type as All Files.
Click on Save after browsing to the location of your choice.
- You will now notice a new file has been created.
You simply need to run this file by double-clicking it each time you wish to restart the explorer.exe process. You can also assign a keyboard shortcut to this file.
It is not wise to restart the explorer.exe process very often and only recommended to do so when facing lag, or feeling that the operating system’s performance is not ideal, or effectively enforce some changes which you have made to the system that requires a system reboot.
Moreover, it is not always necessary that a process reboot is a perfect alternative for a system reboot, but there is no harm in trying it before going for a complete computer reboot.
Nonetheless, always ensure that all the data is saved in applications and programs utilizing the process, as they are bound to shut down when restarting the explorer.exe process.
Did you find this method effective to get rid of everyday lag and system slowness?
There are certain situations when you would want to find the process start and end time in Windows 11/10. For example, as you try to troubleshoot an application, or if there are too many processes running in the background. You may also want to know the start time and time of the Windows process if you want to monitor the timings of a certain process started by someone else.
While there are a couple of ways to find out the Windows Process start time, there are not many ways to know the end time. Let’s first understand what is the process start and end time in Windows.
What are the Windows Process Start and End times?
Some Windows processes usually start along with a few services as soon as you boot up your PC, or when you launch a program. This is the actual start time of the process. Also, you may want to note the process end time for applications that terminate themselves automatically after they have been idle for some time.
However, considering all these occur in a matter of seconds in the background, it is impossible to note the start time during this period. But for some reason, we may need the data later.
While you are working on the Windows machine, you may want to know for how long the process has been running. For this, you would need to find out two things; the process starts time and the end time.
- Find out the Windows process start time using PowerShell
- Find out the Windows process start time using Process Explorer
- Find out the Windows process end time using system tools
- Find Process Start and End Times using free tool
1] Find out the Windows process Start time using PowerShell
One of the quickest ways to find out the Windows process start time is by using the PowerShell utility in admin mode. There are two PowerShell commands, one of which helps you find out the start time for all processes, and the other helps you to find out the start time of a specific process.
To find out the start time for all processes, open the elevated Windows PowerShell prompt, run the below command and hit Enter:
Get-Process | select name, starttime
Windows PowerShell will now generate and display the list of process start times. You can then look for the process you want the start time for.
Alternatively, to find the start time for a specific process, run the below command in the elevated PowerShell, and hit Enter:
Get-Process ProcessName | select Name, StartTime
So, for example, if you want to find out the process start time for Notepad, simply replace ProcessName syntax with Notepad:
Get-Process Notepad | select Name, StartTime
PowerShell will now display the start time for Notepad and you can note it down for your reference.
Read: Process Manager lets you measure computer reboot, logon times and more
2] Find out the Windows process Start time using Process Explorer
Another way to find out the process start time for Windows 11/10 is by using the Microsoft Sysinternals Process Explorer Tool. It’s a free alternative to Task Manager with advanced features that Task Manager does not offer. It can do all of that Task Manager does, and also doubles up as a system monitor, and as an anti-malware program. As a plus, it can monitor the process start time. Here’s how:
- Download the Process Explorer tool from Microsoft’s official download page.
- Unzip the folder and extract the file to your preferred location.
- Double-click on the file (procexp) and open it.
- Next, click on View at the top and click on Select Columns.
- Now, in the Select Columns dialog, go to the Process Performance tab and select Start Time. Press OK.
- You should now see a column called Start Time, in the Process Explorer tool.
Read: Task Manager is not responding or opening
3] Find out the Windows process End time using system tools
Finding the end time of a Windows process could be rather tricky because there’s no other option available for the same.
- You can use the Microsoft Process Class to manually start and stop the local system process, and that way, you can monitor the end time.
- You can also use the Microsoft Stopwatch Class to accurately measure the elapsed time and accordingly log the end time.
Related: How to find out Windows Downtime, Uptime and Last Shutdown Time
4] Find Process Start and End Times using free tool
If you are not comfortable with any of these, you can use a third-party tool like the ProcessTime tool by the Code Project to find and log the start and end times of the Windows 11/10 processes. You may also refer to its step-by-step tutorial that guides you on how to do it using the WMI commands.
Read: How to find all running processes using WMIC in Windows
How do I see running processes in Windows 11?
While the Windows Task Manager allows you to see the running processes in Windows 11, you can also use the Command Prompt for the same. Run Command Prompt as an administrator > type tasklist > Enter. It will list all the running processes in Windows 11. Alternatively, you can also run a command called get-process and hit Enter in the elevated Windows PowerShell to check the running processes.
How do I find my PID in Windows 11?
PID or Process ID is a unique decimal number assigned to each process that runs on Windows. The PID can be used for different purposes; for example, it can be useful to fix issues by identifying the process with its id as you attach a debugger to it. Having said that, you can find the PID in Windows 11 using Task Manager, Command Prompt, Resource Monitor, and PowerShell.
Want to start, stop, or kill a process using Command Prompt or PowerShell? This tutorial shows you how and explains the commands.
While most Windows users rarely need to manage processes manually, there will be situations where it is necessary. For instance, you might need to force-stop a frozen process or kill one that’s consuming too many system resources. Alternatively, you might have specific programs you only need to launch occasionally via command line. Whatever your specific use case is, you can easily start, stop, or kill any process in Windows using the Command Prompt and PowerShell.
These methods are particularly helpful when creating custom scripts, when the task manager is unresponsive, and to create desktop shortcuts.
This guide will walk you through how to start a process and stop a process (kill process) using Command Prompt and PowerShell in Windows 11 and Windows 10.
Before You Start
Some processes, such as system-level services, system processes, and processes belonging to other users require admin rights to start and stop.
Starting and Stopping Processes Using Command Prompt
Starting a Process
- Open the Start menu by clicking the “Windows” icon on the taskbar.
- Search for “Command Prompt” and click “Open“.
- Run the
start "C:\path\to\process.exe"while replacing the dummy path between quotes with the actual path to the process.- Programs in the system PATH, like “explorer.exe” or “notepad.exe”, don’t require a full path. For example, to start Windows Explorer, you can type
start explorer.exe.
- Programs in the system PATH, like “explorer.exe” or “notepad.exe”, don’t require a full path. For example, to start Windows Explorer, you can type
- Press “Enter” to run the command.
- The above action starts the process immediately.
- You can close the Command Prompt window after running the command.
Note: If a process requires elevated permissions, you need to open Command Prompt as admin. To do that, select “Run as administrator” in step 2.
Stopping or Killing a Process
Let’s say your File Explorer is frozen and you have a difficult time opening the Task Manager. In that case, you can use Command Prompt to terminate the process (stop process). Here’s how.
- Open the Start menu by pressing the “Windows” key on your keyboard.
- Search for “Command Prompt” and select “Open“.
- Run
tasklistto list all the running processes. - It shows the process name and process ID under the “Image Name” and “PID” columns respectively.
- Note down the Image Name and PID of the process you want to kill or stop.
- Run one of the following commands, replacing the placeholder with the actual value you noted:
- The above command instantly kills the process.
- You can close the Command Prompt window after running the command.
Note: If a process requires elevated permissions, you need to open Command Prompt as admin. To do that, select “Run as administrator” in step 2.
Command Flag Explanation
- /im: Specifies that you are targeting the process by its Image Name (process name)
- /PID: Specifies that you are targeting the process by its Process ID.
- /F: Forcefully terminates the process. While you can omit this flag, doing so only attempts a graceful shutdown of the process and may not work if the target process is frozen or unresponsive.
Starting and Stopping Processes Using PowerShell
Similar to Command Prompt, PowerShell has specific cmdlets that allow you to start and stop/kill a process.
Starting a Process
- Open the Start menu by clicking the “Windows” icon on the taskbar.
- Search for “PowerShell” and click “Open“.
- Run the
Start-Process "C:\path\to\process.exe"while replacing the dummy path between quotes with the actual path to the process.- Programs in the system PATH, like “explorer.exe” or “notepad.exe”, don’t require a full path. For example, to start Windows Explorer, you can type
Start-Process explorer.exe.
- Programs in the system PATH, like “explorer.exe” or “notepad.exe”, don’t require a full path. For example, to start Windows Explorer, you can type
- Press “Enter” to run the command.
- The above action starts the process immediately.
- You can close the PowerShell window after running the command.
Note: If a process requires elevated permissions, you need to open PowerShell as admin. To do that, select “Run as administrator” in step 2.
Stopping or Killing a Process
Just like with Command Prompt, before you can kill a process, you need to know its name or ID. In PowerShell, you can get the ID of any process using the Get-Process cmdlet and then kill it using the Stop-Process cmdlet. Here’s how.
- Open the Start menu by clicking the “Windows” icon on the taskbar.
- Search for “PowerShell” and click “Open“.
- In the PowerShell window, run the
Get-Processcmdlet to list all the running processes.
- You can find the process IDs under the “ID” column. Note down the process ID of the process you want to terminate.
- Run
Stop-Process -Force -ID process_idwhile replacing “process_id” with the actual ID of the process you want to kill.- (Example: Stop-Process -Force -ID 1234)
- The above command instantly kills the process.
- You can close the PowerShell window after running the command.
Note: If a process requires elevated permissions, you need to open PowerShell as admin. To do that, select “Run as administrator” in step 2.
Command Flag Explanation
- -Force: Forcefully terminates the process. While you can omit this flag, doing so only attempts a graceful shutdown of the process and may not work if the target process is frozen or unresponsive.
- -ID: Specifies that you are targeting the process by its Process ID.
Wrapping Up — Starting and Killing Processes Using Command Prompt and PowerShell
As you can see, whether you want to use Command Prompt or PowerShell, starting, stopping, and killing any process is fairly simple. Keep in mind that system processes, system-level services, and processes started by other users require you to have administrator rights to kill them. Additionally, if a process is frozen and unresponsive, you have to use /F in Command Prompt and -Force in PowerShell to forcefully terminate the target process.
If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.
In Windows 11, Explorer.exe is the process name for Windows Explorer, which is responsible for initiating and displaying most user interface elements such as the Desktop, Taskbar, Start menu, and File Manager. When the Explorer.exe crashes or if you close it manually, these UI elements will disappear, leaving you with a blank desktop.
There are many issues whose solutions involve restarting the Windows Explorer (Explorer.exe) process. The most common way to restart explorer.exe is by terminating it and reopen it via the Task Manager. However, if you cannot access Task Manager, you can restart explorer.exe using command line in CMD (Command Prompt) or Windows PowerShell.
Also see: Can’t Click Anything on Desktop in Windows 11 (Fix)
This short tutorial will show you how to restart explorer.exe without Task Manager in Windows 11 using Command Prompt, PowerShell or Windows Terminal.
How to restart Explorer.exe without Task Manager in Windows 11
If you are in a situation where you do not have access to the Task Manager when you need to kill and restart the explorer.exe process, use one of the following methods instead to restart explorer.exe in Windows 11 without Task Manager.
Related: How to Force Close Program in Windows 11 without Task Manager
Restart Explorer.exe in CMD
Command lines in Windows can do pretty much anything, including terminating or starting a process. You can use the following command lines in Windows 11 Command Prompt to forcibly kill the explorer.exe (Windows Explorer) process and then start it again.
- Search for “CMD” or “Command Prompt” via the Start menu. Right-click Command Prompt from the search result and select “Run as administrator“. Administrative right is required to execute the command lines in the following steps.
- In the CMD window, type the following command and press Enter to force terminate the explorer.exe immediately.
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
- Once the Windows Explorer is terminated and the UI disappeared, run the following command to restart the explorer.exe process again.
start explorer.exe
Side note: The taskkill “/f” parameter tells the taskkill command to force terminate the process even when it is running (or is in used by a program). The “/im” parameter tells the command that the following name is an image name of the process (explorer.exe).
Read next: How to Know Which Process is Using a File in Windows 11
Depending on your computer’s performance and the number of items that need to be loaded, it may take some time for Windows to fully start the Windows Explorer process when you execute the “start explorer.exe” command line. For example, on a desktop with over a hundred icons, Windows Explorer will take longer to fully load than on a desktop with only a few icons.
Restart Windows Explorer with PowerShell
Alternatively, you can use PowerShell command to restart Windows Explorer in Windows 11. You will only need to enter a single line of command and Windows will automatically stop the explorer.exe process and restart it. To do so, follow the steps below.
- First, right-click the Start icon and select Windows PowerShell (Admin).
- In the PowerShell window, type the following command line and press Enter to execute it.
stop-process -name explorer –force
- Windows Explorer will then be forced to stop and restart automatically.
The “stop-process” command is used to stop one or more running processes. The “-name” parameter tells the command to stop all processes that has the name “explorer”. Additionally, the “-force” parameter tells the cmdlet to forcibly stop the process without prompting for confirmation.
This single line of PowerShell command will kill and start the Windows Explorer process automatically. There is no need to execute any more command to start the explorer.
In addition, you can also use the same PowerShell command lines to restart explorer.exe in Windows Terminal. Windows Terminal is a new and modern host application for command-line shells built for Windows 11 and Windows 10. It merges Command Prompt, PowerShell, and other tools into one.
To open Windows Terminal, right-click the Start icon and select Windows Terminal (Admin), or search for it via the Start menu.
This tutorial will show you how to restart the explorer.exe process as needed in Windows 11.
The explorer.exe process is the user shell for Windows, and is used by such items as the desktop, File Explorer, Start menu, notification area, 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.
If you are having issues with the explorer.exe process (ex: hang), restarting the explorer.exe process may sort it without having to restart the computer.
If you are applying a registry tweak, sometimes you can just restart the explorer.exe process to apply instead of having to restart the computer or sign out and sign in.
Contents
- Option One: Restart explorer.exe Process in Task Manager
- Option Two: Restart explorer.exe Process using Command
- Option Three: Start explorer.exe Process in Task Manager
Option One
Restart explorer.exe Process in Task Manager
1 Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
2 Select Windows Explorer in the Processes tab, and click/tap on the Restart button (old Task Manager) or Restart task (new Task Manager). (see screenshots below)
3 When finished, you can close Task Manager if you like.
Option Two
Restart explorer.exe Process using Command
1 Open Windows Terminal, and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.
2 Copy and paste the command below into the terminal, and press Enter to stop and restart the explorer.exe process.
PowerShell/Command
powershell "Get-Process -Name explorer | Stop-Process; Start-Process explorer.exe"
OR
Command Prompt
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer.exe
3 When finished, you can close Windows Terminal if you like.
Option Three
Start explorer.exe Process in Task Manager
This option is good for when the explorer.exe process has already been stopped, and you are stuck with a blank black desktop with only the pointer displaying.
1 Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
2 Perform one of the following actions depending on if you have the old or new Task Manager: (see screenshots below)
- Old = Click/tap on File (menu bar), and click/tap on Run new task.
- New = Click/tap on Run new task at the top.
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 Brink
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