This is a quick Windows tip that helps me from time to time when some windows in Microsoft Windows do not react anymore to user input and show that dreaded sand clock mouse cursor. This only works if Windows is still responsive. To shut down the Windows Explorer you need to hit Start > Shutdown (Turn off Computer on Windows XP) and click cancel on the shutdown dialog while holding the CTRL, Shift and ALT keys.
This kills the explorer.exe process and all that we have to do now is create a new explorer.exe process to access all windows and functions again in Windows.
Click on File > New Task in the Windows Taskmanager and enter explorer.exe in the window. This will restart the Windows Explorer and hopefully brought the desired result. You open the Taskmanager with the keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + DEL btw.
I used to kill explorer.exe in the Windows Taskmanager before until I found out that the method described in this post is the official way of restarting the Windows Explorer.
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A alternative way to fireup the Task-manager is
CTRL+SHIFT+ESC
On XP Pro SP2.
Ctrl Shift Esc gives me a Task Manager window with NO tabs and NO menu bar. This window remains on top of the other windows. I can resize it smaller to make it unobtrusive, but I’ve found no way to close it without rebooting.
(Maybe use Martin’s restart Explorer tip, but I don’t want to close all my open windows now.)
In the Notification area I found an icon whose context menu allowed a close of the Ctrl Shift Esc window.
um… ctrl alt delete…. kill explorer.exe, then start it again…. i find that easier..
Ctrl+Shift+Esc gives me a normal task manager (with all tabs and menus) on Win XP Pro SP2. I can close it fine too.
Alex yes that was the method that I did use as well until I read about the official way to close the explorer process which is the way I did describe it in the article.
I did not find out if there are any difference between those two methods though..
@Bill ..
I too get a normal task manager with Ctrl Shft Esc
I think, the task manager window you’re talking about is the one which is displayed when you double click on empty tab area or on side walls of the task manager window