⇒ Click ' Close the program', and let Windows takes its time restart explorer: your taskbar should be back up within a few seconds ( if not, follow the steps below). Click a few times on the taskbar, and a dialog will appear, offering you to ' Close the program', ' Wait for the program to respond', or ' Cancel'. When a program has performed an illegal option, Windows 7 no longer crashes like earlier versions of the operating system did, but the ' explorer' process may be compromised.Step: wait for the update (or other activity) to finish - about a minute should be enough. If it is completely or mostly on, it means that your computer's in the middle of something big - most often, a free antivirus software update. First, check the disk activity light on your desktop PC / laptop: it is the one that typically flickers, especially as you open or save big files.There are two typical reasons, with troubleshooting tips for each:.The Windows 7 taskbar may at time freeze: it becomes ' white', unresponsive with unclickable buttons, though you can still switch between programs using the Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut.› Windows 7 › Fix frozen taskbar problem in Windows 7