Windows 7 - Explorer.exe - Kill all processes at once

**limneos**

How to Kill all Explorer.exe Instances with One Move

Information

This will show you how to terminate all running explorer.exe windows (in cases of crashes or debugging reasons)

Note

The usual way of killing explorer.exe process is by opening Task Manager, going to the Processes tab , right clicking the explorer.exe instance and clicking "End Process".This tutorial will show you a faster way, available in Windows 7 and Windows Vista

Here's How:

1. Click on Start to open the Start Menu. Now while holding down the Ctrl+Shift key, right click on Shutdown button or any button you have in place of it on this area:

2. Click on Exit Explorer.

That's it. If you need to start explorer again though, the only way is to open task manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and goto File-> New task (run) and type explorer.exe {enter}

Limneos

**garysgold** · 02-13-2009

Thanks limneos. Nice find.

Gary

gendows · 03-07-2009

great trick

Thank u

Brainymidget · 06-12-2009

Not sure if it's just me but when I did this and exited explorer, not only did it exit my explorer windows, it also completely closed out my taskbar, and made it a blank blue box. I was able to get it back by re-opening explorer as it said later in the tutorial.

Timewarpone · 10-18-2009

Is this how I delete IE 32 bit version or inactivate it?? I am running windows 7 ultimate 64 bit and I noticed there are 2 browsers. A 32 bit and 64 bit (which is located in all programs). The default when I click on the "E" 32 bit IE automatically pops up. My real question is: Should I be using 64bit IE all the time as my default since I am using 64 bit windows 7 ?? I found out which version I was using by clicking on the "Help" tab in the upper right hand corner of explorere then clicking on "About Internet Explorer" if no version is displayed than you are using the 32 bit version if using 64 bit then 64 bit version will be displayed. Does it really matter which version is used?? Shouldn't the 64 bit version be the default in Windows 7 64 bit?? Thanks in advance.

Timewarpone