Your taskbar and notification area (as well as any open File Explorer windows) should disappear from view. In the alert window that pops up, click “End Process.” Select the “explorer.exe” process and then click the “End Process” button. In the Task Manager window, switch to the “Processes” tab. Right-click any empty area of the taskbar and choose “Task Manager.” Instead, you’ll have to end the process and then restart it as two separate steps. Windows 7 doesn’t offer a simple restart command like Windows 8 and 10 do. Restart Explorer from Task Manager in Windows 7 It may take a few seconds and things like your taskbar and Start menu may disappear momentarily, but when it restarts, things should behave better and you can exit Task Manager. To restart, just select “Windows Explorer” and then click the “Restart” button. Otherwise, you’ll find it toward the bottom of the “Background Processes” section. Scroll down the list of what’s running and find “Windows Explorer.” If you currently have a File Explorer window open, you’ll see it right near the top in the “Apps” section. The “Process” tab of the Task Manager window shows you apps and background processes currently running on your PC. If your Task Manager window looks like the example below, click “More details” at the bottom to see the detailed interface. And if you favor keyboard shortcuts, just press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.

In Windows 8 or 10, open Task Manager by right-clicking any empty area on your taskbar and then clicking “Task Manager.” You can also hit Start and search for “task manager,” which might be more useful to you if you’re looking at the Start screen instead of the desktop in Windows 8. Restart Explorer from Task Manager in Windows 8 or 10 It was overhauled for Windows 8 and 10, so we’ve got instructions for you whether you’re using those or Windows 7. Task Manager offers the traditional way to restart Windows Explorer. RELATED: How to Use the New Task Manager in Windows 8 or 10 RELATED: 10 Ways to Customize the Windows 10 Start Menu Option One: Restart Explorer from Task Manager Here are a few ways you can restart Windows Explorer. Restarting Explorer doesn’t always work in those cases, but it’s easy enough to try it first if you want to avoid a full restart. Restarting Windows Explorer can also be handy if you’ve just installed a new app or applied a Registry tweak that would normally require you to restart your PC. Just like you can close and restart an app that’s acting up, you can also close and restart Windows Explorer. Occasionally, any of these pieces that make up the Windows graphical shell can start acting strangely or even hang. Windows Explorer (Explorer.exe) is a program manager process that provides the graphical interface you use to interact with most of Windows-the Start menu, taskbar, notification area, and File Explorer.

Windows 10 taskbar refreshing