Question

Hotkeys/Shortcuts to Close Explorer.Exe

Asked by: frogpad

Hi, thanks in advance for your help.

My computer freezes from time to time (actually quite often nowadays) despite running defrags and other utilities. I find that if I go to the Windows Task Manager -> Processes tab, I can close explorer.exe and that allows things to unfreeze and I don't have to restart my computer.

However sometimes my pc freezes so badly that I cannot even open the Windows Task Manager. In which case I am wondering if there are a set of HotKey buttons I can press to close explorer.exe directly. Is there such a hotkey built-in to Windows? Or if not, is there a way I can create this?

I am using Windows XP Home Edition.

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

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Asked On
2006-04-27 at 11:28:44ID21830172
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Windows XP Operating System

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Answers

 

by: KenneniahPosted on 2006-04-27 at 11:34:50ID: 16555743

Well, right-click on your desktop and hit New -> Shortcut, then type in "tskill explorer"
Name it whatever you want, then once created, right-click on the shortcut and hit properties.
Then on the Shortcut tab, select Shortcut key, and enter whatever you'd like to be the hotkey.

Personally however, I'd spend more time finding out why it's freezing so much.

Have you scanned for virii and spyware much recently?

 

by: JonveePosted on 2006-04-27 at 13:02:47ID: 16556676

This article makes interesting reading ->
"What is explorer.exe? Is explorer.exe spyware or a virus?":
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/explorer.exe.html

Suggest you try at least two of these three, free on line virus scanners, as no one scanner can guarantee finding & fixing everything:
 
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm
http://housecall.trendmicro.com

You could also try downloading and running this free version of Ewido anti-malware, designed with Win XP in mind.    Update first, then scan in Safe mode:
   
http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

 

by: AmigoJackPosted on 2006-04-27 at 23:15:20ID: 16559682

if Kenneniah's tip wont help, try the command "TASKKILL /F /IM explorer.exe" instead.

there exists also a hotkey for the taskmanager: CTRL+SHIFT+ESC

 

by: frogpadPosted on 2006-05-02 at 11:33:17ID: 16589182

Thanks guys for all your help. I understand this is just a quick and dirty tactic but so far it's working when my computer freezes. Restarting my computer takes about 10 minutes including loading up all the software.

I've done all that I can think of including removing spyware, reducing number of items that startup on boot, and freeing up space. So basically after a few dozen reboots later and tons of lost productivity I decided I just needed a quick solution...heh.

Thanks guys!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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