When you often need to restart the Windows shell (Windows Explorer), you know what a hassle it can be to do it the "official" way.  And so do we.  That is why we have created ShellDispenser; a small utility that will make restarting the Windows shell that much easier.

In the old days, you needed to use Task Manager to kill off Windows Explorer the hard way (which is the improper way by the way).  An alternative was to use the "Turn off computer" screen, but that is even more cumbersome.  ShellDispenser on the other hand allows you to restart your shell with the press of a key!

If restarting the shell is a part of your job, then ShellDispenser is the tool you have been looking for.

Benefits

Some benefits of using ShellDispenser are:

• Close, start and restart the shell with the press of a key
• Which keys to use is fully customizable
• Closes the shell the proper way (i.e. not by brutely terminating the process)
• All shell operations can be performed from the command line for easy integration in scripts
• Can be hidden in the notification area to make some room on your screen
• Good on-line help support
• Very small application size

Customizability

There are situations in which you can instruct ShellDispenser to do something that might give rise to an undesirable situation.  An example could be when you instruct ShellDispenser to hide when there is no notification area to hide in (when Windows Explorer is down); how do you access ShellDispenser now?  In these circumstances, ShellDispener shows you a confirmation dialog first.  Most of these dialogs can however be overriden by checking the "Don't show again" checkbox.  When you get more accustomed to handling Windows Explorer yourself, you can instruct ShellDispenser to automatically handle these situations as you like.

All the shell operations that ShellDispenser gives you can be accessed in multiple ways.  Of course the operations can be accessed from the main window and from the main menu.  However, these operations can also be accessed via hot keys (see the program settings dialog) and via a menu in the notification area; this way there will always be a method of manipulating Windows Explorer that best suits your needs.  And there is also the option of instructing ShellDispenser from the command line; this way you can e.g. integrate shell operations in your own build scripts.