ok guys, thi is my problem. it's not the first time this happened but now im getting tired of this happening so im asking for advice.

Whenever explorer.exe terminates, all the tasks that were visible in the notification area on the lower right side (next to the clock) are lost and only a few of them return (usually the windows components such as the clock, audio controls, etc... but the rest of them disapears, though they are still running somewhere in the background because they are listed in the task manager but so far i havent discovered a way to switch back to them. does anyone know how i could do this without closing them and opening them again?
if my description is unclear, or you need any more info, let me know.

thx in advance.

thx, it works. and yes, i meant crashing btw, i tried it, it can recover the windows, but they can not be minimized nor loaded back into the tray again. but at least i can see them on the screen, which is an achievement as well. thx