Following creates a "Restart Explorer.exe" context menu (doing right click on Desktop).
If you wonder what the /v:on switch does, it turns on Delayed Expansion which by default is turned off. It does expand %WINDIR% at the execution time.
reg add "HKCR\Directory\Background\shell\Restart Explorer.exe\Command" /ve /d "cmd /v:on /c """taskkill /f /im explorer.exe ^& start ^!windir^!\explorer.exe""""
While CMD.exe is a command-line interpreter (CLI), EXPLORER.exe is a Windows shell. It runs system's search or File Type associations meanwhile being a file manager.
It could be called soft restart.
taskkill /f /t /im explorer.exe & %windir%\explorer.exe
Problems with GUI are: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe missing, or C:\WINDOWS\System32\shell32.dll corrupted (stores icons etc.), not to confuse with RunDLL32.exe.
, or it takes parameters without starting GUI at all. In that case there's no desktop, taskbar, icons or WIN keyboard shortcuts working.
There's just one explorer.exe for all logged users, so killing it kills it for all locked users on the station.
Can take parameters (http://www.geoffchappell.com/studies/windows/shell/explorer/cmdline.htm)
explorer file.doc opens file with a default program.
explorer . opens window at the current folder.
explorer , opens window at the Computer
runas /netonly /noprofile /user:PC001\user "explorer \\PC001\Data\" which sadly does not work because the credentials used to connect to the network share are different from the credentials used to start the program.