There are many cases where you need to restart your PC. It could be because you installed updates, installed a new piece of software, or maybe your computer just crashed. All of these situations usually require a system restart.
While a system restart is the most reliable way to make the changes take effect, minor problems (like the mouse pointer getting stuck on the icon) can be resolved by restarting Windows explorer (and thus refreshing the Windows shell.)
Here are three methods to do that. Check them out.
1. Restart Explorer via Windows Task Manager
Right-click on the Taskbar, select “Start Task Manager” to launch the tool.
Switch to the “Process” tab, locate “explorer.exe”, click the “End Process” button and confirm the operation.
If you are concerned about the security of terminating a process, you can also click on the empty space around the Windows search bar in Start, hold Shift + Ctrl, then right-click on an empty area of the Start Menu, select “Exit Explorer”.
Now, after the taskbar and desktop icons are gone, you need to click “File -> New Task” on the menu bar, then type “explorer” to restart Explorer.
That’s it. You have successfully restarted Windows Explorer.
2. Restart Explorer through batch file
You can also create shortcuts and desktop context menu items to do this. Launch Notepad, copy the following commands into it, then save the file as Restart Explorer.bat to any location you want.
@echo turn off taskkill /f /im explorer.exe start explorer.exe
Whenever you want to restart Windows Explorer just double click and execute the above file.
3. Add Restart Explorer option to Desktop Context Menu (Right Click) [Registry Hack]
We can also add the option to restart explorer to the context menu using the batch file we created above.
Note: This method uses some registry editing. Therefore, it is important that you back up your registry before proceeding.
1. Press Win + R, type regedit (or type regedit in the Windows search bar) to launch Registry Editor. Create a key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT –> Folder –> Background -> shell by right clicking on the “shell” folder. Name it Restart Explorer.
2. Do the same process again, i.e. right click on Restart Folder Explorer you created, go to “new” and add a key named Request.
3. Back to the file Restart Explorer.bat we originally created, hold Shift and right click on it and select “Copy as path” to get the file path to clipboard.
4. Now, inside the registry editor, paste the path to the file (Default) value below Request (you need to right click “Default” in the right pane and click “Modify” first).
That’s it. From now on, you can right-click on the desktop to immediately restart Explorer without any extra steps.
This tip is also useful when you experience a sluggish system, but it can sometimes lead to some system tray icons disappearing. Therefore, please save your work before performing the operation.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
