Is there any way to open cmd in windows 7 if the explorer.exe has been already disabled (which means you cant use the start menu)

Question

Is there any way to open cmd.exe in Windows 7 if explorer.exe has been disabled (which means you can't use the Start Menu)

Answer 1

Yes. Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and bring up Task Manager. Then on the File menu, hit New Task... Type cmd in the box and BAM! -- a command prompt window. Although, you could also just respawn the shell by typing explorer in the box too.

Answer 2

If you cannot start Explorer, or Explorer's run box has been disabled, and Task Manager's run box has also been disabled, but you can still use Word (or Excel &c.) you can often open the macro editor and use VBA to start any executable you want.

Answer 3

WIN+R

type cmd -> bam you got a black screen

Answer 4

Go to task manager via Ctrl + Alt + Esc and run a new task.

Type iexplore- IE will open then after type

file:///c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe

in the address bar, press Enter. That's all.

Answer 5

Just to promote this to an answer (rather than a comment on the currently-highest-voted, but not-actually-the-best-way-to-do-this answer):

Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to bring up the Task Manager. On the Task Manager window's File menu, choose "Run new task". Type cmd in the box and hit Enter or press 'OK'. Alternatively, if you think Explorer would be OK once it's restarted, instead of typing cmd in the box, type explorer.

(In general, if your system has gotten to the point where Windows Explorer has crashed, you don't want to hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete unless you're OK with your computer misinterpreting you and restarting itself. This is especially true if, in the chain of events that led to Explorer crashing, you perhaps have already given the three-finger salute a few times. In this sense, the Task Manager key combination is "safer".)