How to Remove a Bad Web Part from a SharePoint page

Symptoms

If a Web Part is not properly deployed or if a user closes the web part, the page may fail to display when you add the Web Part to a Web Part Page or the load on the page may cause the page to crash.

 

Resolution

In such situations, as was the case with SharePoint 2003, 2007 and still with 2010, you can append “?Contents=1” to the Web Part Page’s URL.

For example, http://portal.companyname.com/default.aspx?contents=1. The Web Part Maintenance Page will displayed and from there you can delete the offending Web Part(s).