SquaredCircle Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate. If explorer.exe crashes on me (it has once or twice lately), I'm stuck without a taskbar and my desktop shows only my wallpaper. I can't even right click on it. Everything else comes back (Firefox, iTunes, etc), but no taskbar, no desktop. I've gone into Task Manager and done the whole File > New Task > explorer.exe, but the only thing that happens is a new explorer window pops up. Still no taskbar or desktop. Is there any way to get these back without having to restart my computer if explorer.exe crashes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquaredCircle Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 No suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chasethebase Reporter Posted January 17, 2011 Reporter Share Posted January 17, 2011 If you check if explorer.exe is running, that might be why another window opens rather than explorer itself. Go into Processes and see if even after the crash, explorer.exe is still present, if it is, kill it. Then restart it like you have been doing. Salty Wagyu 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 I think you should also focus on fixing the explorer.exe crash in the first place, thats not normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquaredCircle Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 If you check if explorer.exe is running, that might be why another window opens rather than explorer itself. Go into Processes and see if even after the crash, explorer.exe is still present, if it is, kill it. Then restart it like you have been doing. I've actually done that, but when I run explorer.exe all I get is a window. I think you should also focus on fixing the explorer.exe crash in the first place, thats not normal. Yeah...it seems to happen if I open up a folder with PSD files on thumbnail view. I have ThumbView Lite installed which is supposed to generate thumbnails for PSD files. Usually it works fine, but once in a while it can crash explorer.exe. At least, I'm fairly certain that's what causes it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViperAFK Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 The way you've tried is the only way, it seems there is definitely something wrong with your pc causing both the crashes and explorer not opening correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sulphy Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Your method to press CTRL + ALT + DEL, Start task manager, click on File, New Task (Run), and type explorer.exe, hit enter should work... but, i would uninstall ThumbView Lite, and see if it still happens. I had a similar issue with an audio codec - I know...! weird!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+allan MVC Posted January 17, 2011 MVC Share Posted January 17, 2011 Download BlueScreenView: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html unzip downloaded file and double click on BlueScreenView.exe to run the program. when scanning is done, go to EDIT - Select All Go to FILE - SAVE Selected Items, and save the report as BSOD.txt Open BSOD.txt in Notepad, copy all of the content, and paste it into your next reply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seizure1990 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 I've actually done that, but when I run explorer.exe all I get is a window. If all you get is a window, chances are you didn't kill all the explorer processes. Sort the processes by name, so they stop shifting order, and then find and kill each explorer.exe instance, before finally starting a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquaredCircle Posted January 18, 2011 Author Share Posted January 18, 2011 If all you get is a window, chances are you didn't kill all the explorer processes. Sort the processes by name, so they stop shifting order, and then find and kill each explorer.exe instance, before finally starting a new one. Not to be insistent, but I have done all of that and still don't get the taskbar back when starting a new explorer process. Thanks for the idea though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hosso Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate. If explorer.exe crashes on me (it has once or twice lately), I'm stuck without a taskbar and my desktop shows only my wallpaper. I can't even right click on it. Everything else comes back (Firefox, iTunes, etc), but no taskbar, no desktop. I've gone into Task Manager and done the whole File > New Task > explorer.exe, but the only thing that happens is a new explorer window pops up. Still no taskbar or desktop. Is there any way to get these back without having to restart my computer if explorer.exe crashes? did you do any modification on explorer.exe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiB3R Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Check the dwm.exe process (desktop window manager) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquaredCircle Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 did you do any modification on explorer.exe? None Check the dwm.exe process (desktop window manager) I'll give that a look next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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