How to Cleanly and Quickly Terminate and Restart Windows Explorer

Windows XP

1. Open the Start menu
2. Click “Turn Off Computer”
3. Hold down the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys and click the "Cancel" button.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. Open the Start menu
2. Hold down the Ctrl + Shift keys and right-click in an empty spot inside the Start menu. (Keep holding down the keys while you click.)
3. A hidden menu will pop up 
4. Click “Exit Explorer”

After either of these procedures you may have a very empty screen but the system is still operating. If you have changed the default Explorer settings to "Launch folder windows in a separate process",  then some folder windows may not close when you apply this trick.

How to restart Windows Explorer

To restore Windows Explorer in all versions of Windows, do the following:

1. Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+Shift+Esc  to launch Task Manager
2. In Task Manager, open the "File” menu
3. Choose “New Task (Run...)"
4. Type "Explorer" and click OK

Windows Explorer will reappear.

Let me learn what you think :)