Process.Start("explorer.exe"); won't bring back taskbar

Question

As of right now, I am working on a mock up OS via WinForms to use as a prop for movies. Upon running the application, it kills explorer.exe so that you can't accidentally have the windows task bar show up during a shoot. The issue is, upon closing the mock OS I would like for explorer.exe to be started up again. However, Process.Start("explorer.exe"); brings up an explorer window, and does not re-instate the window taskbar.

I know for a fact, that task manager is more than capable of bringing back the window taskbar via typing "explorer.exe" under a new task, though I've had no luck finding command line arguments to pass to task manager.

Edit: I'm running under Windows 7. As well, I'm going pretty in depth with this mock OS. I'm taking control of quite a few key presses that Windows uses. For this reason, I kill explorer.exe so that I can use key presses such as "Alt-Tab" and display a mock app switcher, etc. The app already runs in full screen, but it is still possible to have the underlying Windows GUI pop back up. I am essentially replacing explorer.exe with my own mock up explorer. Upon closing my custom explorer, I can't seem to get the regular Windows GUI to come back by launching explorer.exe via Process.Start();.

Nap

Why not simply run fullscreen? – Orling

I'm running under windows 7, however, the mock OS will have to be built to work with any version of windows. – Nap

See the answer about how to make the winform the topmost item, which hides the taskbar... – Godson

Create a full screen window and leave Explorer alone blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2013/08/01/10438543.aspx – Ollieollis

Answer 1

From here:

Try

Process.Start(Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("windir"), "explorer.exe"));

It appears you must specify the full path to explorer to get the taskbar back.

Tout

Answer 2

From here:

Explorer must see some fulfilled conditions to launch as shell:

1. Explorer must not run (which includes Control Panel, for instance)
2. Explorer must see it is the actual shell - hence you need to replace that value before launching explorer.exe (could change it back a few seconds later)
3. Sometimes it seems (on newer Windows versions) it depends on the process that launches explorer.exe - if it is "known" to explorer.exe -- I don't have any more details for this part though (and you couldn't change it, unfortunately)

Concinnity