How can I stop and start Explorer (the shell)?

A. A. Explorer is just a process so you can stop the Explorer process and then start a new one. You should use caution with this though and you will also lose the service type icons on the taskbar when Explorer restarts.

1. Right click on the task bar and select Task Manager
2. Click the Processes tab, select explorer and click "End Process"
3. Click the Applications tab and click "New Task"
4. Enter a name of explorer and click OK
5. Close Task Manager