Problem

I am connected to a remote server using Remote Desktop.  However, the desktop and start menu fail to initialise properly.  The explorer.exe process appears to be affected somehow.  How can I run Task Manager to run other programs like the Registry Editor or Explorer.exe manually?

Solution

Press the [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[End] keyboard key combination to force Task Manager to appear inside your Remote Desktop (mstsc.exe) session.  From here you can use ‘Run Task’ to launch additional programs.