Cannot start "explorer.exe" on remote server

windows-server-2008 rdp
Sparky picture Sparky · Jul 31, 2013 · Viewed 25.7k times · Source

I was working on one of our production servers. There were many windows on SSMS and BIDS open at the moment and i was executing some SQL queries and monitoring some job's status on this server. All of a sudden,the taskbar disappered. This is how my server's RDP window looks now:-

enter image description here I believe now from the looks of it that explorer.exe has been closed. Hence i'm trying to restart explorer.exe on my remote server. In attempts to fix this, I followed the approach given here https://serverfault.com/questions/381730/how-to-restart-explorer-exe-remotely. I tried all approaches specified in this link.But to no avail. I feel this is a similar problem to what I am currently facing.

Posting the question here since i dont have enough reputation on serverfault to post images.

I need to get this server window back to how it used to be(with the start menu and stuff. Can someone please help me get over this debacle? All i need is to be able to call the run prompt or task manager somehow so that I can restart explorer.exe.

Answer

butterbox picture butterbox · Jul 31, 2013

Close your connection, and re-connect. At Programs check the "Start the following program on connection" and enter "explorer.exe". That fixed it for me. Here you go for the full tutorial.

Edit:
Use Ctrl+Alt+End to log off.

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