Restart Explorer to Fix a Frozen Taskbar or Desktop
Kill and auto-restart explorer.exe — the classic repair for a dead Start menu, unresponsive taskbar, or glitchy icons.
01Command
$ Stop-Process -Name explorer -Force02What it does
explorer.exe is not just File Explorer — it also owns the taskbar, Start menu, system tray, and desktop rendering, so when those freeze while programs still work, killing explorer is the targeted fix. Stop-Process terminates it immediately, and Windows restarts the shell automatically, redrawing the taskbar with settings reapplied. This clears stuck icon caches, shell extension deadlocks, and tray overflow bugs that a full reboot would also fix, in a tenth of the time. Open Explorer windows close with it, but running applications are untouched. If it does not come back automatically, run explorer.exe to start it.
03Risk
04Undo
✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.
05Sources
- Stop-ProcessEvidence: Documents Stop-Process -Name for terminating processes; explorer.exe auto-restarts after being stopped.
- Stop-Process — PowerShellEvidence: Syntax reference for Stop-Process, including -Name and -Force parameters.
Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: System & Settings
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