whenever I check my desktop windows manager I always see windows explorer there taking up space for no reason. I use firefox and explorer comes on the desktop windows manager whenever I start my computer so I'm wondering how can I disable this?
Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) is an essential part of the Windows operating system, not Internet Explorer (iexplore.exe) which is the browser.
Disabling explorer.exe at startup would mean disabling the GUI of Windows at start.
can you guys tell me how to disable windows explorer it if it's safe? thanks for the clear up on the internet and windows terms
Do not disable Windows Explorer.
It makes your computer work properly.
can you guys tell me how to disable windows explorer it if it's safe? thanks for the clear up on the internet and windows terms
Ok. I'm gonna show you what windows explorer is.
(this is the XP way, I'm not sure if it's different in other OSs)
First press Crtl-Alt-Del
Task Manager will show up (remember not to close it)
Go to processes
right-click on explorer.exe and select End Process.
right?
Now (in task manager) go to Applications > New task.
type explorer.exe and hit enter.
If you closed task manager just press Crtl-Alt-Del again or reboot.
Do you still want to disable windows explorer?
whenever I check my desktop windows manager I always see windows explorer there taking up space for no reason. I use firefox and explorer comes on the desktop windows manager whenever I start my computer so I'm wondering how can I disable this?
I'm afraid you can't stop explorer.exe from running as already stated by Glenn its an essential part of the Windows operating system. It doesn't mean that Windows Explorer is running all the time in the background. Its the same with Systray.exe (Win9x/ME)and Mctray.exe (WinNT) thats the part around your clock that shows tasks and icons.
As metalj has stated
Ok. I'm gonna show you what windows explorer is.(this is the XP way, I'm not sure if it's different in other OSs)
First press Crtl-Alt-Del
Task Manager will show up (remember not to close it)
Go to processes
right-click on explorer.exe and select End Process.
Now (in task manager) go to Applications > New task.
type explorer.exe and hit enter.
If you closed task manager just press Crtl-Alt-Del again or reboot.
Do you still want to disable windows explorer?
In Win98SE if you End Task Explorer.exe you will get the shutdown dialog box straight away.
Yeesh. At least they asked first.
It seems there are a lot of people out there that think Windows Explorer (explore) is the same thing as Internet Explorer (iexplore).
Ok. I'm gonna show you what windows explorer is.
Those were rather good instructions, and should clear up any confusion!
You could replace explorer with a 3rd party window manager.
You could replace explorer with a 3rd party window manager.
Did you try what metalj said ?
You cannot replace explorer with something else. You can use something else, like Total Commander, but you can't replace it.
Another thing with explorer :
Click on the taskbar.
Alt + F4.
Windows asks you if you want to shutdown your computer...
Sure you can. I use bbclean with a memory limiting plugin. Hovers around 5mb RAM usage when idle.
Be sure explorer isn't running anymore along with the replacement one though as this will accomplish nothing except using more resources. I can't speak for others but bbclean and bblean require you to use the 'install' option from it's menu. Otherwise it'll run on top of explorer and may not work as expected.
Some more- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_shell_replacement
If you replace it you can still use explorer for file manager functions as normal. explorer.exe will start and close for that.
There is also a "clean" way to stop explorer.exe instead of killing it,
goto the "shut down windows" dialog box
press and hold CTRL-SHIFT-ALT then click Cancel on the dialog box,
your taskbar and desktop icons will disappear as explorer exits (start it again as metalj explained)
!! ONLY read further if you KNOW what you're doing !!
FOR Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 ...
Explorer.exe is started by userinit, and userinit is started by winlogon upon login of the user.
all of this is configured in the registry under:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Currentversion\Winlogon
There is an entry called "Shell" which has explorer.exe in it and an entry "userinit" which has userinit.exe in it.
the program under "userinit" is started once when you log in, and should do its stuff and lastly execute whatever is in "Shell"
the program under "Shell" is then again executed whenever winlogon detects that your explorer has stopped unexpectedly
In other words, if you change for example the "explorer.exe" under "Shell" to "cmd.exe" a command window is started instead of explorer.exe
BEWARE: if some nonexisting program is set in "Shell" you may not be able to login anymore !!!
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378750(VS.85).aspx (at the bottom)
You can't beat the performance of no shell.
Throw notepad.exe in the the shell for a laugh
Note: ctrl+alt+delete to run regedit and correct it back.
hmm way back when I tried it on a college test pc I should have tried shutdown.exe..... lol
hmm way back when I tried it on a college test pc I should have tried shutdown.exe..... lol
That would've been malicious.
I have discovered that if I close down my computer explorer.exe gets disabled
I have discovered that if I close down my computer explorer.exe gets disabled
Upgrade to DOS!