It seems there are times that computers get tired and decide to take a nap or maybe decide to stage a strike. How else would you explain a situation where a computer has been working without a hassle and suddenly you open the Control Panel and all you get is a blank screen staring at you?
Of late I have noted my laptop has been running slowly and I thought this was due to the number of applications installed. I therefore decided to un-install some of the programs I rarely use. So I hurriedly open the control panel only to realize it is displaying a blank screen.
My first thought is I have been hit by a virus. I therefore restart and scan for any viruses and non is found. I again open the control panel and the problem is still there – blank screen.
Maybe if I run the Add/Remove Programs directly the problem will go away. I open the command prompt (cmd.exe) as the Administrator and type appwiz.cpl press the enter key and the blank screen is still staring at me. It at times like these that I miss internet. I could just have googled the problem but unfortunately I forgot to bring my modem along.
At this point I decide to stop any services that are running and are not critical or necessary. I open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc). I select the Processes tab and click on the Image Name column header to enable sorting the list alphabetically by their names. I accidently end the explorer.exe process and only realize what I have done after my Desktop disappears. As I still have the Windows Task Manager Window open, I decide to continue the process of stopping non-critical processes and to restart the explorer after I am through. I finally restart the explorer and at least the laptop seems to have started running smoothly.
Finally, when I am done with the tasks I wanted to accomplish and before shutting down, I decide to check whether the Control Panel stopped misbehaving and sure enough it is no longer blank. I am baffled but as I am not sure of what I did to bring it back, I assume it the explorer thing that made it work. As I am unable to reproduce the behaviour, I will assume that killing the explorer and restarting it is what solved the issue.
I will list the steps for stopping and restarting the process (explorer) so that in case the problem recurs, this will be my first point of call.
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Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
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Select the Processes tab.
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Find explorer.exe processes and select it
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Click End Process button on the dialog window that is displayed to confirm the end process.
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Select Applications tab and click New Task… button at the bottom right of the window.
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Type explorer.exe in the Open: textbox then click OK.