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CMD - Restart Explorer and Start Menu.md

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CMD - Restart Explorer and Start Menu

See Also: RegEdit - Restart Explorer and StartMenu Context Bar

Contents

Explorer

Source: Originally from How to Restart File Explorer in Windows 11 (winaero.com), but I enhanced some.

Enhanced Solution

  • Add /fi flag for calling ShellCommon.dll to ensure I am only killing to main shell, and not any other Explorer Windows.
cmd.exe /c taskkill /f /im explorer.exe /fi "modules eq Windows.Internal.ShellCommon.dll" & start explorer.exe

If you want to restart with a pause then:

cmd.exe /c @echo off & 
    echo The explorer.exe process will be terminated & echo. &
    taskkill /f /im explorer.exe /fi "modules eq Windows.Internal.ShellCommon.dll" & echo. & 
    echo Done & echo. & 
    echo Press any key to start explorer.exe process & pause>NUL & start explorer.exe & 
    exit

Original Solution

  • Using a Batch File: restart-explorer.bat:
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe
exit
  • Using Command Line:
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

Start Menu

As you may already know, the Start menu in previous Windows 10 releases has been hosted by a system process called ShellExperienceHost.exe.

In Windows 10 May 2019 Update Microsoft has separated it into its own process, called StartMenuExperienceHost.exe.

This gives the Start menu a performance boost and resolves a number of issues like delays in launching some Win32 apps. Users will notice measurable improvements in Start reliability. The Start menu is now opening significantly faster.

Full Path: C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\StartMenuExperienceHost.exe

Restart Command:

taskkill /im StartMenuExperienceHost.exe /f\
start C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\StartMenuExperienceHost.exe

Appendix: Links

Backlinks:

list from [[CMD - Restart Explorer and Start Menu]] AND -"Changelog"