General Add or Remove Menu Bar in File Explorer in Windows 11

Kees said:

In that case Open-Shell (and in particular Classic Explorer) is the reason of this toolbar.
Before I decided not to use OpenShell anymore (because StartAllBack has a usable Startmenu as well), I never installed the Classic Explorer part that is automatically installed if you don't change the install options.

This is what you should do:
- In OpenShell settings make a backup of your settings (you can do that on every page of the settings menu)
- De-install OpenShell completely
- Install OpenShell again, but disable installation of Classic Explorer:

View attachment 76902

Now the toolbar has to be disappeared and OpenShell installed.
In the modern Win11 Explorer User Interface the optional Classic Explorer brings not very much.
That's from the time of Windows 7, where there were no buttons for copy and paste files etc.

After re-installing OpenShell you can put back the saved settings.

Edit: changed "dissapeared" to "disappeared"

Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply Kees.

I omitted to say that I already tried uninstalling the program and putting just the Start Menu from Open-Shell back on. However, it seems that there must have been something left behind after I uninstalled through the Programs & Features part of the Control Panel. When I added back the Start Menu part of Open-Shell I was surprised to see my customised settings returned without reimporting the backed up settings. Is there a way to uninstall Open-shell cleanly, do you know?

I have tested for you on my testsystem to install and de-install OpenShell again and again, but could not reproduce the problem you have.

The values that are stored, even after de-install are stored in the registry, here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OpenShell
I testwise deleted that key and all values were gone (next time I installed OpenShell it was in the default state).
But I am not 100% sure that you can safely delete that key, so I would not advise you to do so unless someone else here ( @Brink ?) is saying you can indeed do that.

If you have a possibility to make a system restore point or make an image of your system drive, I deeply advise you to do so.
Then de-install OpenShell (if you did not do that already)
If you have done that, you could make a text file where you copy this text into:
(--- start of text, don't copy this line into the textfile ---)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OpenShell]
(--- end of text, don't copy this line into the textfile ---)
And change the extension of the file from .txt to .reg
Doubleclicking that file gives you two warning screens that you do a dangerous thing.
Confirm each of them and you will get a message that the values are added to the registry.
Now all information that was stored in the registry for OpenShell installation should be gone.

Restart your computer and install OpenShell again.

If you are not familiar at all with the registry, I urgently advise you to get someone at your computer who is!

I don't take responsibility if something in your system goes wrong.
So once again: make an image of the system by whatever program you have for that or at least make a system restore point (which is normally disabled in Windows11).

Kees said:

I have tested for you on my testsystem to install and de-install again and again, but could not reproduce the problem you have.

The values that are stored, even after de-install are stored in the registry, here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OpenShell
I testwise deleted that key and all values were gone (next time I installed OpenShell it was in the default state).
But I am not 100% sure that you can safely delete that key, so I would not advise you to do so unless someone else here ( @Brink ?) is saying you can indeed do that.

Click to expand...

I don't use it to have them to say one way or the other.

I'd also recommend to create a restore point first to be safe in case a System Restore is needed to undo with the restore point.

Kees said:

at least make a system restore point

Click to expand...

That's what I said...

Brink said:

I don't use it to have them to say one way or the other.

Click to expand...

As I am not natively English, this phrase is not clear to me.
Who are 'them'?
As it might be important for other occasions, so could you say it in other words please?

Kees said:

As I am not natively English, this phrase is not clear to me.
Who are 'them'?
As it might be important for other occasions, so could you say it in other words please?

Click to expand...

The apps like OpenShell.

Thanks. I'll wait until @AnnieB writes an answer, then we'll see what happens.

Maybe the problem will be solved as well after re-installing the whole OpenShell package (including Classic Explorer), do a system restart and then de-installing the whole bunch again. That's somewhat safer than fiddling around in the registry.

Thanks for your replies. I left a message at GitHub and asked in the discussion forum there. They tell me that this menu bar isn't part of Open-Shell.

I wonder where it comes from. Perhaps it was part of the Windows 10 ribbon setup. I've only had this computer about 3 weeks and the shop assured me that they loaded Windows 11 from scratch using a Windows 10 licence.

I see this menu on my old Windows 10 PC too but I also have Classic Shell and Winaero Tweaker on there too. I cannot see any contact details to enquire to Winaero Tweaker so I think I am stuck.

Thank you for your help though.

AnnieB said:

They tell me that this menu bar isn't part of Open-Shell.

Click to expand...

I would doubt that, as I was able to build about the same bar in Classic Explorer:



My last try:
What happens if you right-click that toolbar?
Is it showing "Classic Explorer Bar" as well as in my screenshot:



When yes, what happens when you click that, so click on the Check mark before "Classic Explorer Bar?
On my explorer window, the toolbar was disappearing (and never came back, whatever I tried).

Maybe it's the combination of something you set in Winaero Tweaker with OpenShell that's coursing the problem. But that goes far beyond my capabilities to test.

Just a note to interested participants in this thread:

The Menu Bar is still available (until you close and re-open File Explorer) if you open Folder Options and make any change there and then click Apply and OK. I'd suggest that you un-check Show this PC in the View tab, because that won't actually change anything once you click OK. See pic. This may be a temporary glitch in the current version of W11. I discovered it quite by accident while fiddling today.

Kees said:

I would doubt that, as I was able to build about the same bar in Classic Explorer:

View attachment 76960

My last try:
What happens if you right-click that toolbar?
Is it showing "Classic Explorer Bar" as well as in my screenshot:

View attachment 76957

When yes, what happens when you click that, so click on the Check mark before "Classic Explorer Bar?
On my explorer window, the toolbar was disappearing (and never came back, whatever I tried).

Maybe it's the combination of something you set in Winaero Tweaker with OpenShell that's coursing the problem. But that goes far beyond my capabilities to test.

Click to expand...

I am getting into a real pickle with this now. I had previously uninstalled the Open-Shell and then rebooted and put on just the Start menu. However, after your suggestion, I uninstalled it again but got an error whilst doing so. It said something like it couldn't close everything and I had to restart the Windows File Explorer in task Manager. I then rebooted and installed both the Start Menu and the File Explorer parts of Open-Shell but I couldn't get the File Explorer to show up in the Window until I drilled down into one of my EaseUs ToDo Backup files. I then saw it had moved across to the right so I clicked it where it said Classic Explorer and now the Open-Shell Menu gone and I cannot seem to get it back at all.

I even tried resetting all of my folders back to default in the Windows options but that didn't seem to help.

I notice from your screenshot that your Windows Explorer looks like the 22H2 version of Windows 11. All this trouble began when I updated to the 23H2 build.

EDIT: By trouble, I mean the issues that brought me to investigate this in the first place. The problem I was finding after updating Windows was that, after making a backup or accessing a backup file which I had created in EaseUs ToDo backup, I would not be able to rename the file or eject the external hard drive. I was getting messages that a file or folder was still in use. According to the Resource Tools the culprit is explorer.exe. I perhaps could live with this but, as yet I haven't loaded all of my data onto my new PC and I am afraid that I may encounter the problem with other files or folders which would make sorting this out even more of a hassle later on.

The reason I thought the menu bar may be the issue is because the inability to rename the file only occurs at the stage where I click on the C drive partition within the .pbd backup file and this coincides with when the 'Organise' menu bar appears. It may have nothing to do with it though.

More options appear when I navigate the folder with the backup file in until I close the window down. The menu bar then disappears until the next time but I cannot rename the folder containing the backup file without restarting Windows Explorer in Task Manager and sometimes that doesn't always work.


Perhaps I need to start a new thread if anyone thinks there's any mileage in sorting this out. The actual presence of the menu bar doesn't bother me but if it does have something to do with this then it's best to see if I can overcome it.

AnnieB said:

I notice from your screenshot that your Windows Explorer looks like the 22H2 version of Windows 11.

Click to expand...

That's because I used the trick described here:
Disable tabs in Windows Explorer

23H2 version:
vivetool /fullreset
vivetool /disable /id:40729001,37634385

But that should not make any difference to the functioning of Classic Explorer.
My advice still is:
- make a system restore point
- de-install OpenShell completely
- delete the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OpenShell" in the registry
- do a system restart
- see if your problem has cured
- re-install OpenShell, but do not install Classic Explorer.

I would not know any other solution.

And yes, maybe it's better to start a new topic, because as a matter of fact this is rather off-topic from the subject
"Add or Remove Menu Bar in File Explorer in Windows 11".

Or maybe a moderator could split off all that has to do with your problem to a new topic.
But I don't know if mods here are willing to do that (I have been moderator for quite a while in other, totally different forums, so I know such a thing should be possible).

Kees said:

But that should not make any difference to the functioning of Classic Explorer.
My advice still is:
- make a system restore point
- de-install OpenShell completely
- delete the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OpenShell" in the registry
- do a system restart
- see if your problem has cured
- re-install OpenShell, but do not install Classic Explorer.

Click to expand...

I have done most of what you suggest but I'm not entirely sure about deleting the registry key. Is it a case of finding it in the Registry Editor and right-clicking on the folder called OpenShell and clicking Delete?

Yes, that's the one!

Ah well. It didn't make any difference. The menu bar is still there and I haven't even reloaded the Open-Shell program. I guess the menu bar belongs to Windows in some way and hopefully isn't the source of my problem although I don't know what is, LOL!

Thank you for trying to help me. It's much appreciated.

You're most welcome!

It's a pity I could not help you.
Can't think of anything else that would cause this problem.

Hopefully someone else in this forum still has an idea...

Just a follow-up. Someone over at the Open-Shell GitHub pointed me to this link which seems to show this bar was called the Command Bar in Windows 7:https://www.askvg.com/enable-window...ndows-10-ribbons-in-windows-11-file-explorer/

I have never installed the Explorer Patcher program mentioned in the article and my machine was set up by the shop who built it with a fresh installation of Windows 11 in early October when the operating system was still 22H2. I wonder how this menu has landed on my machine.

I have left this information here just in case anyone else notices the same at some stage.