# Explorer.exe hangs on shutdown

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/explorer-exe-hangs-on-shutdown/181270>\
**Category:** random\
**Created:** [March 7, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/explorer-exe-hangs-on-shutdown/181270 "2006-03-07T23:20:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MTsoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@MTsoul](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/MTsoul)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/explorer-exe-hangs-on-shutdown/181270/1 "2006-03-07T23:20:02Z")

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When I shutdown or logoff on Windows XP Pro (SP2), explorer hangs and the little end task prompt appears.

I googled this and found nothing. Everywhere it’s saying explorer.exe cannot end a task. But I just did a fresh re-install of Windows XP last night and installed some common programs (Office, Flash, etc).

I tried different combinations and found:

[LIST]  
[_] Starting up/logging in and opening any application (and closing it) results in explorer.exe hanging (end task prompt upon shutdown).  
[_]Starting up/logging in WITHOUT opening any application (be it task manager, windows explorer), the computer shuts down perfectly without the end task prompt.  
[\*]Shutting down explorer.exe and opening it from task manager will also gracefully shutdown the computer.[/LIST]Any ideas how I could fix this?

Thanks in advance.