How to reboot a machine on Remote desktop connection after explorer.exe crashes

crashrebootremote desktop

How do I reboot a machine on a Remote Desktop connection after explorer.exe crashes?

I'm stuck at trying to do this. After I googled a bit and found that people were saying to use Ctrl + Alt + Esc or Ctrl + Alt + Del to turn on the Task Manager. Both didn't work. So now all I have is a blank desktop and no key combination can work at all.

How do I either show Task Manager so I can start a new instance of explorer.exe or how do I restart the machine via keyboard shortcuts?

Best Answer

if you are using Windows Remote Desktop Connection,

  1. Before you hit connect, click the options drop-down,
  2. Go to the Programs tab,
  3. Check the box that says "Start the Following program on Connection"
  4. Enter 'explorer' (without quotes) into the Program Path and File Name Box
  5. Connect Normally

I've had a similar issue with one of our work VM instances and it's a pain to have to get I.T. to reboot it all the time, and I couldn't seem to open Task Manager when the instance was in this state.

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