Recover (Faster) From a Windows Explorer Hang
Every once in a while, Windows Explorer hangs on my machine. (I am running Windows XP. ) I will be able to switch between programs using alt+tab and all my running software still runs, but nothing I do will get Windows Explorer going again. In previous versions of Windows I could kill the Explorer using the task manager and the operating system would restart it. XP doest do that anymore, which really surprised me the first time I did this. Now what? I thought. The only thing left to do is hard reboot, right? Nope!
It turns out that logging off and logging back on is enough to re-initialize the Windows Explorer, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Kill Explorer: First, the unresponsive instance of Windows Explorer needs to be killed, in the usual way:
1. Open the Task Manager by pressing ctrl+alt+delete.
2. Select the Processes tab and find explorer.exe. I usually sort by Image Name to find things easier. Just click on the column header named Image Name and it will sort ascending. You can also click it twice to sort descending if the item you are looking for is at the end of the alphabet.
3. Once you have located explorer.exe, click on it to highlight it.
4. Then click the End Process button to kill it.
5. A warning will appear about undesireable results, but things are already pretty hosed to have gotten you here anyway. So, just click Yes.
You may have to repeat this process a few times, but eventually you will notice that your toolbar at the bottom of the screen is gone. At this point you cant do much of anything. Now what?
Close All Other Open Windows: Now, shut down whatever programs you still have running. Press alt+tab to get to each one and close it as usual. Dont forget to save!
Re-Log In: Pop open the the task manager again. Click on the Shut Down menu and select the Log Off _user_ menu item.
This will log you off and get you back to your log-in screen. If you dont normally have a log-in screen you willl still get one. All you have to do is click on your user name (probably the only one). For me, logging off and back on is way faster than rebooting the machine entirely which can take three to four minutes at the very least.
Tags: hangs, internet explorer, nope, Operating system, previous_versions, reboot, running_software, task_manager, Windows, windows xp
me barrett on 01 Aug 2007 at 2:39 pm #
I have suffered from this problem as well, and recently discovered a new way to get back to work quickly, instead of rebooting or logging off! All you have to do is go to the File menu of Windows Task Manager and select New Task (Run…). In the Create New Task dialog box, enter explorer into the Open: text box, and hit OK. Your task bar and everything should reappear, and put you back in business!
Silly you on 12 Oct 2007 at 12:42 pm #
That is what you call a quick fix. Unfortunately you will come across this all too frequently. Why not have your IT Department take care of this and you will never have to run the trouble of restarting or starting a new task. Or even better yet upgrade to Linux Kernel.
tench on 21 May 2008 at 8:13 am #
My linux explorer is doing the same. What should I do? Will try os/2 next.