Explorer Patcher / Bringing back quick launch

There are a lot of links showing you cant install explorer patcher on a 24H2 Windows PC. However before I reinstalled Windows 11 a week ago I did have my quick launch toolbar.

I have installed the current explore patcher from github but right clicking on the task bar doesn't show the option for new toolbar. Right click properties shows explorer patcher installed.

How do I get my quick launch toolbar back as I know I did it once!

In EP Settings, make sure Taskbar Style is set to: Windows 10: Explorer Patcher

Yes it is but no option for new toolbar.

allan said:

In EP Settings, make sure Taskbar Style is set to: Windows 10: Explorer Patcher

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Can you please post a screenshot of the dialog box you see when you right-click the toolbar?

Attaching

Okay. Not sure why EP isn't working as it should for you, but while back I had the same thing happen on a computer and I used this third party tool. It worked perfectly: GitHub - brondavies/TrayToolbar: Provides a replacement for the custom toolbar functionality that was removed in Windows 11

First though, you might try uninstalling and reinstalling EP - worth a shot.

allan said:

Okay. Not sure why EP isn't working as it should for you, but while back I had the same thing happen on a computer and I used this third party tool. It worked perfectly: GitHub - brondavies/TrayToolbar: Provides a replacement for the custom toolbar functionality that was removed in Windows 11

First though, you might try uninstalling and reinstalling EP - worth a shot.

Click to expand...

tRIED THAT BUT CANT GET IT TO RUN.

Then it sounds as though something else may be at play. I recently did an in-place upgrade on two systems and it fixed a number of minor issues I was having. No harm in trying. Although no settings or installed programs will be effected, it always makes sense to create a disc image first.

Running a in-place upgrade:

I only reinstalled windows a few days ago.

I understand. But there seem to be a couple of issues that may be explained by a corrupt installation. There's no harm in doing the in place upgrade. Either it will help or it won't, but it won't do any harm or cause any hardship.

I see that you have Kaspersky listed in your specs. Maybe it does not want to play nice with EP?

In EP settings > Advanced, you can enable Console. Then when you run the command
%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe "%windir%\dxgi.dll",ZZRestartExplorer
it will restart explorer gracefully, but will do so in a more failsafe manner (IME anyway) than when you simply click on the Restart File Explorer link in the bottom left corner of the EP settings window panel. Wait for explorer and EP to reload itself next, and, in the Explorer console window, you should now be able to verify that the symbols are loaded, and that EP really is using the "Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher)" taskbar style (currently, that would be the file ep_taskbar.5.dll).


Still in EP settings > Advanced, don't forget to disable Console again before you close the window.

In several cases I have found that it's best to reboot after you have installed/updated EP, updated Windows to a new build number (that would trigger EP to download new symbols) or applied some certain changes in EP settings (that would require explorer to be restarted). Only rarely have I found the need to uninstall/reinstall EP to fix an issue with it, and, that was a very very long time ago.

I agree with @allan that doing a Windows repair with an in-place upgrade could turn out to be the easiest way to eliminate the potential risk that your Windows installation got currupted somehow, as the usual-old
dism /cleanup-image /online /restorehealth immediately followed by sfc /scannow does not always solve all problems in that regard.
(The reason why this risk is not worth taking IMO is because the resulting problems tend to let you drive around in circles either until you do the in-place upgrade anyway still after all or until they finally drive you nuts...)

I uninstall ed Kadpefsky a year ago. Now rely on Defender. Have had to reinstall Windows for 2nd time in a week so maybe ep will work now.

woldsweather said:

I uninstall ed Kadpefsky a year ago. Now rely on Defender. Have had to reinstall Windows for 2nd time in a week so maybe ep will work now.

Click to expand...

Still no new toolbar setting in right click on task bar in fact I only get task manager and task bar settings now.

woldsweather said:

Attaching

Click to expand...

I see from your screenshot that Taskbars is missing from the top of the dialog when you right click on the taskbar. If you then click on Properties, is it also missing from the Properties dialog? If it's not there, it seems there has to be something on your system that's blocking it.

I'm also using Defender, and just upgraded to 24H2. I did have to set to Windows 10 (Explorer Patcher) to get my beloved task bar back, but it’s all looking good so far. I remember dire predictions that 24H2 would kill EP, but it lives on--at least on my machine.

This is what I get. Is there a way to get new taskbar?

Your properties dialog shows a line saying Win10 taskbar is unavailable for this version of Windows which I’m not seeing.

I just installed 24H2 on a 2d pc (laptop in this case). Windows paused the update until I uninstalled EP. Once I did that, the update completed. I then downloaded and ran EP and my Win10 taskbar is back.

Maybe try uninstalling EP, and then re-installing following the instructions at GitHub - valinet/ExplorerPatcher: This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows

Might not help, but it only takes a couple of minutes, so worth a try.

Thanks for your support here. I ran the instructions in powershell to add exclusions at least I think I did I didn't get any message that it did or didn't run. After uninstalling and reinstalling I still get the same as before.
Annoying because I had this working a couple of weeks back.

Is your version 24H2, Build 26100.3194?

Yes thats it

We have the same version of Win11, so if it's not the OS, there must be a setting in some software. Have you tried the recommended settings in Defender:

Please include the following files and folders in your antivirus' exclusion list to prevent issues due to antivirus detections:

• C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher
• %APPDATA%\ExplorerPatcher
• C:\Windows\dxgi.dll
• C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy
• C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy

For Defender, you can run the following script in PowerShell as an administrator:

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Program Files\ExplorerPatcher"
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:APPDATA\ExplorerPatcher"
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Windows\dxgi.dll"
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy"
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy"