restarting windows with out restarting you whole computer

how do i restart windows xp with out restarting the whole computer?

 

Hmm.. what do you mean?

 

Applications running in the user context are restarted whenever you log out and log back in again. Applications running in the system context are only restarted on a reboot.

 

Not sure what you mean, But maybe alt ctrl delete, end explorer, lt ctrl delete again then run, then type explorer.exe

 

I believe wongie is referring to how sometimes certain program installers restart the system without the BIOS doing its checks and etc. I'm also curious how they're able to do that.

 

You can use the shutdown.exe command. It has several different switches and parameters, but it still is more or less the same as a reboot. More info can be found at the following links:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317371/en-us (it says Win2000 but it applies to XP also)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491003.aspx (scroll down to 'shutdown' and click it for info)
You can restart Windows by using the method explained above, or just click Start > Log Off > Log Off. This will get you back to the user login screen.