Vista: Shortcuts to Shutdown and Restart Explorer

Contributed by davak February 22, 2008  
Tagged: Microsoft Vista

Since the early days of windows, users have realized that rebooting explorer will frequently save a whole system reboot. With vista, you can shutdown and restart explorer very quickly with these shortcuts.

Many times when a windows environment (Microsoft or otherwise) goes crazy, restarting the display or desktop engine is all that is required. This frequently will save a total system reboot.

Here is what I find to be one of the quickest methods.

1. Press the Start Menu orb
2. Press CTRL-Shift and then right-click on a blank area of the start menu. A menu will appear…

3. Click Exit Explorer and your desktop will die a quick death. Nothing except your wallpaper will be showing.

Now we need to restart vista’s explorer.

4. Press CTRL-Shift-ESC and the task manager will appear.

5. Click the File menu and then New Task (Run…)

6. In the box, type Explorer and click OK

7. Explorer will restart and your desktop will appear.