Every once in a while, Windows Explorer hangs on my machine. (I’mrunning Windows XP. ) I’ll be able to switch between programs usingalt+tab and all my running software still runs, but nothing I do willget Windows Explorer going again. In previous versions of Windows Icould kill the Explorer using the task manager and the operating systemwould restart it. XP doesn’t do that anymore, which really surprised methe first time I did this. “Now what?†I thought. The only thing leftto do is hard reboot, right? Nope!
It turns out that logging off and logging back on is enough tore-initialize the Windows Explorer, but I’m 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.exeâ€. I usually sort byImage 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 tosort descending if the item you’re looking for is at the end of thealphabet.
3. Once you’ve 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 arealready pretty hosed to have gotten you here anyway. So, just click Yes.
Youmay have to repeat this process a few times, but eventually you’llnotice that your toolbar at the bottom of the screen is gone. At thispoint you can’t do much of anything. Now what?
Close All Other Open Windows:Now, shut down whatever programs you still have running. Press alt+tabto get to each one and close it as usual. Don’t 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.
Thiswill log you off and get you back to your log-in screen. If you don’tnormally have a log-in screen you’ll still get one. All you have to dois click on your user name (probably the only one). For me, logging offand back on is way faster than rebooting the machine entirely — whichcan take three to four minutes at the very least.
Recover (Faster) From a Windows Explorer Hang
-
- Ultimate Contributor
- Posts: 6666
- Joined: Feb 17, 2007
- Location: Pakistan, Lahore
- Contact: