Of course the worst case scenario is a complete reinstall of Windows from scratch. If that doesn’t do the trick, then you may need to perform what’s called a repair install of Windows, again using your original installation media. This process may require that you reinsert your installation CD to be able to repair or replace the missing file. That’s going to scan your machine for missing critical files, including Windows Explorer. This time we’re going to run the system file checker. Type Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up Task Manager again, then click on File and click on Run. Now if, when you try and run explorer.exe, you get a message that the program was not found, then perhaps it has been removed (although I really don’t know why that would be). It wasn’t running, but it was still on your computer. If you suddenly get your Start button and taskbar back, that means that explorer.exe has not been removed. In the resulting dialog box, type in “ explorer.exe” and press OK. In the Task Manager, click on the file menu and then click on the Run option. Type Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up the Task Manager. If you create a shortcut that runs that, you’ll have Windows Explorer back.īut if you don’t have a taskbar and a Start menu? Then maybe explorer.exe is gone. That’s the file name for Windows Explorer. What I would have you do is simply create a new shortcut to Explorer.exe. I can see that happening, although not necessarily as a part of the malicious software removal tool. Perhaps what’s happened is that the shortcut to Windows Explorer has been removed. Besides being the file explorer that you use to look at your own files on the computer, Windows Explorer is also the program that actually displays the Start menu and the taskbar. To be clear, if your Start menu and taskbar are still visible, then Windows Explorer has not been removed.

However, there are a couple of steps that I would have you take to diagnose exactly what’s going on and perhaps repair it. I’m actually very skeptical that Windows Explorer has actually been removed.

File explorer opening on its own