Stopping and Restarting Windows Explorer

[hlewton]

I know I read this in here before but apparently I am not using the correct search terms to find it again. How can Windows Explorer be stopped and then Restarted without rebooting?

Thanks.

[HansV]

Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to start Task Manager. You can also right-click an empty part of the Taskbar and select Task Manager from the context menu.
In the Processes tab, select Explorer.exe, then click End Process. Confirm.
Still in Task Manager, select File > New Task (Run...).
Enter Explorer, then click OK or press Enter.

[viking33]

I have a shortcut to WE in my Taskbar. Click on it to start, click on exit bar in upper right to exit.

[Rudi]

The method that Hans points out is spot on for restarting WE in Win 7.
How-To Geek has a nice article on it too...

Looking through that article (for Win 8) points to a nice improvement... In Win 8, when you select WE in the Task manager, the End Task button changes to Restart which basically "reboots" WE. Nice and convenient. :)

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[hlewton]

Thank you all. The method Hans mentioned is the one I remember reading somewhere before and I thought it was here in Eileen's but I couldn't find it. I thought I needed to stop and restart WE because for some reason I could not safely remove USB connected external drives, 3 of them were all busy even though there were no WE windows open or activities being preformed on them that I could determine. I was going to try stopping and restarting WE to see if I could then safely remove the drives but ended up just shutting down the computer. So the next time I will try to remember the above method, or at least now have a way of finding it, to give that a try. I read about other methods to do this and this one was not mentioned exactly. It was suggested to log off and then back on and try that but I thought this method may be the easiest way to do this.

Any thoughts or other suggestions?

[HansV]

Rebooting is generally the best way to solve such problems.

[Rudi]

Any thoughts or other suggestions?

It could be your Anti-Virus app that is holding on to the USB...possibly did (or is doing a scan) and did not release it properly.

Here as an article that references Unlocker to help identify the app which is holding on to your USB...

[hlewton]

Any thoughts or other suggestions?

It could be your Anti-Virus app that is holding on to the USB...possibly did (or is doing a scan) and did not release it properly.

Here as an article that references Unlocker to help identify the app which is holding on to your USB...

Thank you. Just want to mention it was 3 external drives that I could not safely remove. This does not happen often but it has happened before. 1 is a 250 GB, 1 is a 500 GB, and the third one is a 2 TB drive. Do you think the Anti-virus would be holding them al at the same time?

[Rudi]

Do you think the Anti-virus would be holding them al at the same time?

Not necessarily...
It was just a suggestion as it could occur.
Some AV's start auto scanning external devices when plugged in and a 2TB drive can take a while to scan too...

[hlewton]

Do you think the Anti-virus would be holding them al at the same time?

Not necessarily...
It was just a suggestion as it could occur.
Some AV's start auto scanning external devices when plugged in and a 2TB drive can take a while to scan too...

Thank you. I am almost certain it wasn't the anti-virus because it isn't set to scan USB drives and if it were scanning it tells me a scan has started. Also thanks for that link to Unlocker.

[hlewton]

Downloaded and tried to install Unlocker but my anti-virus blocked 2 known bad files from opening from Adware Installer it said. Still it wanted to continue the installation but I didn't since I'm not certain it would have been safe.

[stuck]

I have a 2TB ext HDD that sometimes will 'safely eject' and sometimes it won't, even though as far as I can see it's not in use. I've not worked out when it will and when it won't behave (effort > inconvenience). If it won't disconnect I simply power down the PC and then unplug it.

Ken

[hlewton]

I have a 2TB ext HDD that sometimes will 'safely eject' and sometimes it won't, even though as far as I can see it's not in use. I've not worked out when it will and when it won't behave (effort > inconvenience). If it won't disconnect I simply power down the PC and then unplug it.

Ken

Me too but last night I wanted to continue to use the computer and just thought a quick way to achieve both was to restart WE. I guess I won't know if that actually works until the next time I can't safely remove the drives. It just seems strange to me that I had 5 drives hooked up, two of them being flash drives that I was able to remove but the 3 external hard drives would not allow me to remove them. I have had times when this computer would not allow me to remove even the flash drives but last night I removed them and about an hour later I tried to remove the others and that is when I couldn't.

[Rudi]

Downloaded and tried to install Unlocker but my anti-virus blocked 2 known bad files from opening from Adware Installer it said. Still it wanted to continue the installation but I didn't since I'm not certain it would have been safe.

Try the portable version....there is no installer!

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[hlewton]

Got it. Thanks.