Restart Explorer from the Desktop Context Menu

Posted by Abdul Qadeer in Information Tech | Comments Off

This guide is going to show you how to restart Explorer from the Desktop Context Menu.

This is really handy if, like me, you customise Windows a lot.  If you have to restart Explorer for a Start Orb to change or for a theme to display correctly.

Method 1. – The manual way

Step 1.

Click on the Start Orb, type notepad and click on Notepad from the results.

In Notepad type this in;

Go to File > Save As…

In the Save as type drop down menu, choose All Files.

Name it Restart Explorer.bat and click Save.

Your new file should look like this;

Step 2.

Press the WinKey+R, type regedit and hit OK.

Step 3.

In the left hand pane of the Registry Editor, navigate to;

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryBackgroundshell

Step 4.

Right click shell and choose New > Key

Name it Restart Explorer

Step 5.

Right click on Restart Explorer and choose New > Key

Name it command

Step 6.

Find the Restart Explorer.bat file we made earlier.  Hold down Shift, then right click on the file.  ChooseCopy as path.

Step 7.

In the left hand pane of the Registry Editor, select the command key we created a minute ago , in the right hand pane, double click on the (Default) String Value.

In the Value Data field, paste the path of the Restart Explorer.bat file.  Click OK.

Step 8.

Close the Registry Editor, and right click on the Desktop…  Notice anything different?

Method 2. – The lazy way.

Download this .zip file.  It contains everything you need.

Step 1.

Extract the Restart Explorer.bat file and put it away somewhere safe (like your Documents folder).  You may need to unblock it in the file’s properties.

Step 2.

Extract the Install_Restart_Explorer.reg file.  Right click it and choose; Edit.

This will open up the .reg file ready for editing in Notepad.

You’ll notice at the bottom of the file, the path for the Restart Explorer.bat file is incorrect.  Replace my path with yours.

Go to File > Save when you have finished and Exit Notepad.

Step 3.

Once the .reg file is relevant to you.  Right click it and choose Merge.  Click Yes > OK.

Returning to default.

Returning to default is very easy.

Either download this .zip file and merge Remove_Restart_Explorer.reg

Or follow Method 1. Step 2 & 3.  Right click on Restart Explorer and select Delete.  Click Yes to confirm.