How to Restart Explorer.exe in Windows 10? 4 Ways Are for You!

Windows Explorer (Explorer.exe) is a program manager process in Windows that offers a graphical interface you use to interact with the Start menu, taskbar, desktop, Action Center and File Explorer. Sometimes, any of these parts that make up the interface can act strangely or even hang.

In this case, you can restart Windows Explorer, just like you restart an app when it hangs. Well then, how to restart explorer.exe in Windows 10? Here is the guide for you!

Windows 10 Restart Explorer

Method 1: Restart Explorer.exe from Task Manager

This is the most common method to reopen Windows Explorer and you can follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Task Manager.

• Press Ctrl + Shift +Esc keys at the same time.
• Alternatively, right-click the taskbar and choose Task Manager.

Step 2: Click More details to view the detailed interface.

Step 3: Move to the Processes tab, scroll down to find Windows Explorer, click it and choose Restart.

Alternatively, you can also go to the Details tab, click explorer.exe and choose End task. Then, go to File > Run new task, type explorer.exe and click OK to restart the process.

Method 2: Exit Windows Explorer from the Start Menu

Compared to the first method, this is an easier and safer way. You can exit Windows Explorer while saving your settings rather than kill the program at once.

The following is what you should do:

Step 1: In Windows 10, hold Ctrl + Shift and right-click any empty area of the taskbar. Then, you can click Exit Explorer from the context menu.

Method 3: Automatically Restart Explorer.exe with a Batch File

If you constantly need to restart Windows Explorer, you can make the process automatic for convenience by using a simple batch file.

Step 1: Open Notepad and copy & paste the following text to the text document.

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe

start explorer.exe

exit

Step 2: Click File > Save As to save the file with the “.bat” instead of “.txt” extension, like Restart Explorer.bat and then click Save.

Step 3: You can double-click the newly created .bat file and Windows will exit and restart again automatically.

Method 4: Add Restart Explorer Shortcut to Context Menu

If you are looking for a more reliable and faster way to restart explorer.exe automatically, you can also do this work from the right-click menu. This method enables you to access the context menu anywhere when using Windows Explorer.

Step 1: Open Windows Registry Editor by inputting regedit to the search bar and clicking the result.

Step 2: Navigate to this path: Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background.

Step 3: Right-click the Shell folder and go to New > Key to name the new key as Restart Explorer.

Step 4: Right-click Restart Explorer and create a new key called Command.

Step 5: Go to the batch file you have created in method 3, right-click it and choose Create shortcut.

Step 6: In Registry Editor, click Command, right-click Default in the right panel and choose Modify.

Step 7: Paste the shortcut path you just created, for example, E:\Restart Explorer.bat and click on OK.

Then, you will see the option of Restart Explorer in the context menu whenever you right-click on a blank area in Windows.

Now, four methods to restart explorer.exe have been told to you. If you have a need but don’t know how to reopen Windows Explorer, just try these methods.