Re-start explorer.exe when your taskbar and desktop icons are missing

Have you ever started your computer and you see that your taskbar and desktop icons are missing? You can see the desktop color but the icons are not there. The computer seems to be running fine. Or maybe you start your computer and then get a message saying that “explorer.exe has to shutdown”. You have got to be joking?

Believe it or not this is a common problem that can occur at any time without warning. The Windows application, Explorer.exe is responsible for supplying the taskbar and the desktop icons so the easiest way to get them back is to restart Explorer.exe.

How to start Explorer.exe manually?

1. Press CTRL-Alt-Del on your keyboard at the same time to bring up Task Manager.

2. Go to the Applications tab.

3. Press on the new task button. See the screen shot below.

4. A create task dialog box will appear.

5. Type in explorer.exe into the box.

6. Press OK.

There are so many causes and solutions but I will try to mention a few more:

Desktop does not appearing after booting or starting the computer:

First thing I would do is start explorer.exe as shown in the above tutorial.  After this I would insert the windows operating disc and try to fix the problem with that.

You can use your Windows XP disc to possibly fix this.

1. Put your windows CD into the cd rom drive.
2. Go to the start menu. Choose run. Or press the WINKEY and R on the keyboard.
3. Type in sfc /scannow

An error message saying”Windows Explorer needs to shut down”

How annoying is this error message. You have just started your computer and now it wants to shut down the main application that runs the whole thing. If you click ok then everything on your desktop will disappear and explorer.exe will be shut down, therefore losing the taskbar and desktop icons. If you leave the message there you might be able to access the Internet and and some parts of your computer, but most things will not work. You will not be able to click on shortcut icons or do much at all.The problem needs to be fixed now.

There could be many issues that can cause this problem, however here is a band aid fix that’s seems to do the job. We are going to make a copy of the explorer.exe application file and rename it what you want, and then tell the registry to use this file instead of the original. As we are going to edit the registry you must proceed at your own risk.

1. Go to the start menu and choose computer from the menu.

2. Double click on C: drive and then find the Windows folder.

3. Find explorer.exe. See the screen shot below.

4. Right click on the explorer.exe file and choose copy from the menu. See the screen shot below.

5. Paste a copy of the file back into the same folder.You will need to click in a blank space in the folder. Right click and then choose paste.

6. It will ask you to allow this to happen (admin) and then it will make a copy of the file for you. It will not delete the original file.

7. Now rename the file by right clicking on it and choosing rename. Just say I renamed my file mitz.exe

Now we want to tell the registry to go to mitz.exe instead of explorer.exe:

1. Press the Windows key and R on your keyboard to bring up the run box.

2. Type regedit in the Run box and click OK.

3. We need to find this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon

4. When you have found it, click on the folder, then in the right column there will be some entries
5. Double click on the word Shell.

6. In there where it says explorer.exe, replace it with your new filename..In my case it is mitz.exe

7. Restart your computer. 

Now when you start your computer it will not be looking for explorer.exe. It will open the new file that you named.

Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

The taskbar and icons are missing after removing a virus from my computer.

When viruses attack your computer they especially like to mess with the explorer.exe properties and registry keys as this is one of the main applications on a Windows computer. 

1. Press the WINKEY and R on the keyboard to bring up the run box.
2. Type regedit in the Run box and click OK.
4. Browse for the this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution options

See this article on How to search the registry and find what you want quick.

5. Open that folder by clicking on the arrow next to it .  If you see any subkeys namedexplorer.exe and iexplorer.exe you should delete them. They should not be in the Image File Execution Options key. If you do not find them then this is not the cause of your  problem.
6. Close the Registry Editor.
7. Restart your computer.

If you got rid of the viruses thoroughly and you have deleted these unwanted registry keys then your desktop and icons should be back on your next start up.

Notes: another thing to try is checking your Quarantine folder in your virus protection program. Explorer.exe has been known to be exiled to there.

Quick tips

• Try running in cmd:sfc/scannow as shown above.
• Run the Microsoft update which will might fix the issue.
• Go to the windows explorer icon and click run as administrator.