Refresh the desktop without restarting Windows

When you apply a registry hack or change some major settings to the desktop you may not see the changes immediately. Instead of restarting your computer, try the following two methods of refreshing the desktop.

1) This is the easiest method. Just click on a blank area of the desktop and press F5.

2) If the first method does not work to your liking, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and then find explorer.exe in the Active Processes list. Select it and press End Task. If you receive a window telling you if you want to confirm the closing of explorer.exe say Yes. Your desktop will be refreshed.