

Just like in Windows 7, the Taskbar goes away and the desktop icons seem to disappear. Press and hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift and click the Cancel button.

The desktop turns shades of gray in the background and the Turn off computer dialog box displays with three options and a Cancel button. To correctly shutdown the explorer.exe process in Windows 7 and Windows Vista, open the Start menu and click the Turn Off Computer button at the bottom of the menu.

To close the Task Manager, select Exit Task Manager from the File menu.

The Taskbar, desktop, and other components of Windows are restored. Type “ explorer.exe” (without the quotes) in the Open edit box and click OK. In the Task Manager, select New Task (Run…) from the File menu. To access the Task Manager to restart the explorer.exe process, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete. The Taskbar goes away and the desktop icons seem to disappear. There is a hidden option in the Start menu in Windows 7 and Vista and an extra function in the Shutdown menu of Windows XP that allows you to terminate and restart the explorer.exe process correctly. In Windows 10, you use the task manager to end the process. Using the Task Manager may be effective, but it is forcibly killing the process instead of terminating it properly, giving the process the change to exit safely and completely. You may have heard about terminating the explorer.exe process using the Task Manager. The Windows Shell or Explorer creates and presents the entire Windows user interface, such as the Taskbar, the desktop, Windows Explorer, the notification area (system tray), Start menu, dialog boxes, and interface controls. Explorer.exe is the program component in Windows that provides the Windows Shell. Restarting the explorer.exe process performs the same function. You may think that you need to restart your computer in order for registry changes to take place.
