So I invalidated this whole post already when I did my due diligence & found that the one THIS deleted user's comment from the first linked post worked & I just misunderstood it. I right-clicked Windows Explorer & clicked on "Go to details", where both "End task" & "End process tree" were available options on Explorer.exe, so my cry for help now serves as nothing but keywords that someone will hopefully come across when as flummoxed as I was.
The aforementioned self-invalidated post;
I needed to kill Explorer.exe & run it again (a folder on an old drive I'm working on glitched out), but it seems Task Manager doesn't support that anymore because all I was offered was "restart" & it didn't even work! So I'm wondering if anyone knows a way to get Task Manager back to letting me end windows explorer myself?
I'm on Windows 11 (version 25H2) & came across this post, where OP stated the problem clearly & every commenter (but one) was completely unhelpful & this other post, where OP & the singular commenter are smart about it, but I know there's no way I'm gonna remember that when I need it!