The native app in Windows 10 pro erroneously complains that Internet Explorer must be shut down to install...

...even though there is no process named iexplore.exe running.

Either the detection of "IE running" has a bug, or the error message is providing misleading information.

This has been true for the last several versions of the ADM installer. The only way I can install is to reboot my machine and install before anything else runs.

The installer has not changed for a long time.

Probably, some process runs iexplore.exe for own needs on your computer.

The AntDM installer offers you a "Please close Internet Explorer browser (process: iexplore.exe) before installation (uninstallation)." Agree twice and it should kill iexplore.exe process its own.

If this does not happen, it means that Windows itself uses and maintains iexplore.exe. Try to kill iexplore.exe with help Task Manager.

Sorry I wasn't explicit: this symptom occurs when there is no process called iexplore.exe in the task manager.

For fun, I killed Cortana and my browser and my mail client. Even with no "processes" showing up in the task manager, the error message still occurs.

The dialog box that shows up does not offer to kill iexplore -- it simply asks me to kill it and offers only a "retry". I can push that button a dozen times and nothing happens. The only work-around is a reboot. Interestingly, right after a reboot, I can start and kill internet explorer and your installer has no problem. After a few hours' use of the OS, the installer gets tripped up.

This symptom is identical whether I do a "fresh install" or an update.

I suspect there is something in the installer that is checking for iexplore.exe "handles" in the OS, or is looking at some background process (like a COM surrogate or service host) -- but as a "normal" Win10 system has over 200 processes running all the time, it's hard to know which one is the issue.

Thank you for additional info!
Very strange ... You are the first to report this.
The search process function has not changed since the summer of 2017. Search is carried out by the name of the process (file).
If the installer sees the process, then for the first time he prompts the user to close the program themselves. The next time you click OK the program kills the process without asking for this action.
I hope you are watching Details Tab of Task Manager.
Email me to support please.

Email me to support please.

@Antdm -- je ne comprends pas quoi vous me demande.
Quelle est l'address de support?? Ou bien le lien HTML??