Solved ExplorerPatcher

hdmi · Nov 8, 2022

valinet said:
It’s easy: here’s the practical reason I coded ExplorerPatcher, besides a desire to learn more about what goes into making such an application: Windows 11 comes with a newer NT kernel, and a new set of capabilities and shell improvements to complement it. Specifically, what got me interested:

* Support for mounting disks in WSL2
* Support for GPU compute in WSL2
* Support for GUI apps natively in WSL2
* Multi monitor window handling improvements (apps remember where they were sitting when you reconnect displays etc)

The list is not huge, I admit. Thing is, I did not predict the way the program will eventually shape out - I was planning to restore the old UI and basically that’s it. Then came some requests, some smaller improvements I saw fitting, something there and there and next thing I know I was working on this rather full blown, rather complex and hard to maintain mammoth, and learnt a ton more than I was expecting. There wasn’t a roadmap, I just went along with it as time allowed it (I stayed at home, in house all day, every day for a couple of months around this time last year due to Covid spreading like crazy, working from home basically - so yeah, much much more time for this kind of stuff, work was also lighter duty last year, idk). So yeah, pretty much EP is what it is today not necessarily because of the initial goals, so to speak. In hindsight, idk if I’d start again all over; I mean, maybe for the knowledge, but having the knowledge, yeah, idk, it takes too much time to maintain at an adequate level, unfortunately. And maintaining hardly teaches new things, so what’s the benefit in that? At some point I believe there will be a middle ground where the 11 UI will be more usable and adopt and readapt some of the legacy paradigms. Fighting with the upstream is very difficult and prone to frustration.

As for the other elephant in the room: since most of the features I mentioned are WSL2, why not run some GNU/Linux distro on bare metal and so be it? Well, I use same computers for tons of stuff, like work, personal projects, side gigs etc, and there really are some workflows where Windows is required in the mix. Since I largely like the OS (proper high DPI support for apps compared to Wayland or X, RDP is very robust, rich GPU capabilities and APIs including hardware acceleration in apps etc), and it comes with this WSL feature to satisfy the Linux-needing workflows, it just works and feel very comfortable using it. I run a GNU/Linux distro (Arch mainly) standalone for many years, it’s just not convenient considering some of the workflows I have to employ.

Linux simply doesn't cut it for me either. Windows has an overall better ecosystem with much better available software choices especially if you look beyond basic/common tasks, and, the larger user base of Windows also makes it much easier/faster to find proper solutions to all kinds of problems. Heck, I actually even own a few hardware devices for which there exists no Linux driver whatsoever, not even a crippled driver that could support at least SOME of the hardware functionality. Maintaining a Linux installation keeping it reliable and stable is more cumbersome overall than a Windows installation. And besides, I wouldn't know where to search for Linux alternatives that let me do what can be done with Sandboxie-Plus writing its multiple sandbox content onto a ramdisk with Dynamic Memory Management (Romex Software Primo Ramdisk.) I somehow doubt that such a thing is even possible on Linux if you don't want to reinvent the wheel.

valinet · Nov 9, 2022

hdmi said:
Linux simply doesn't cut it for me either. Windows has an overall better ecosystem with much better available software choices especially if you look beyond basic/common tasks, and, the larger user base of Windows also makes it much easier/faster to find proper solutions to all kinds of problems. Heck, I actually even own a few hardware devices for which there exists no Linux driver whatsoever, not even a crippled driver that could support at least SOME of the hardware functionality. Maintaining a Linux installation keeping it reliable and stable is more cumbersome overall than a Windows installation. And besides, I wouldn't know where to search for Linux alternatives that let me do what can be done with Sandboxie-Plus writing its multiple sandbox content onto a ramdisk with Dynamic Memory Management (Romex Software Primo Ramdisk.) I somehow doubt that such a thing is even possible on Linux if you don't want to reinvent the wheel.

Sandboxie on Linux… You mean containers? The kernel has them built-in (LXC). Or there’s Docker. Let’s not trash talk Linux either. It has a ton of features. Likewise Windows, but licensing restricts a lot of them and requires all sorts of hacks. For example:

* Using self signed drivers in a secure way (I put together ssde using the work of a bunch of people to achieve this or to use Windows China Gov’t edition)
* Having multiple users use the same computer at the same time (multi seating, you need RDPWrap for that or to use Windows Team edition or Windows ServerRdsh edition)
* NIC teaming (I wrote a user space solution, which works but yeah… the NT kernel already has this, but you need Windows Server for it)
* PCIe passthrough (Windows calls it DDA, Direct Device Assignment; only available in Windows Server). A not 1:1 alternative used to be RemoteFX, which they borked for a few years, now they offer an alternative to that indeed, GPU partitioning, which is also available in client Windows. And another alternative that can fill in the gap is WSL2 mounting. But yeah, why not simply enable DDA as well…

None of the above does one have to fight so much for on a GNU/Linux-based distro. The kernel there simply offers comparable features which you can just use.

Straypuft · Nov 9, 2022

Can anyone confirm that Windows 11 update kb5019980 put out yesterday messes some things up in Windows while using Explorerpatcher? I lose the ability to use the start menu and search icon in the taskbar as well as loss of keyboard Windows key functionality. If Im lucky and I successfully uninstall that update, Explorerpatcher lets me have start menu functionality again.

tbmljk · Nov 9, 2022

Explorer patcher continues to work well, both before and after symbols download following yesterday's windows update

Stigg · Nov 16, 2022

Straypuft said:
Can anyone confirm that Windows 11 update kb5019980 put out yesterday messes some things up in Windows while using Explorerpatcher? I lose the ability to use the start menu and search icon in the taskbar as well as loss of keyboard Windows key functionality. If Im lucky and I successfully uninstall that update, Explorerpatcher lets me have start menu functionality again.

Maybe try completely uninstalling it, then reinstalling it.
Do you have any other tweak installed that may be conflicting with it?

valinet · Nov 17, 2022

Straypuft said:
Can anyone confirm that Windows 11 update kb5019980 put out yesterday messes some things up in Windows while using Explorerpatcher? I lose the ability to use the start menu and search icon in the taskbar as well as loss of keyboard Windows key functionality. If Im lucky and I successfully uninstall that update, Explorerpatcher lets me have start menu functionality again.

I use that build in a VM. Works fine for the tests I do. When upgrading Windows, it may decide, sometimes, to mess with files in the system folders, files placed by other applications. To manipulate Start, flyouts and so on, ExplorerPatcher places some files in these locations in order to have itself hooked into those processes. When you have trouble with some functionality in ExplorerPatcher gone altogether, my recommendation is to uninstall it, run “sfc /scannow” to restore the system files integrity, reboot, then reinstall ExplorerPatcher which will hopefully have everything fixed. Your settings for EP are kept when doing this, so it’s a non-destructive process.

hdmi · Nov 17, 2022

valinet said:
I use that build in a VM. Works fine for the tests I do. When upgrading Windows, it may decide, sometimes, to mess with files in the system folders, files placed by other applications. To manipulate Start, flyouts and so on, ExplorerPatcher places some files in these locations in order to have itself hooked into those processes. When you have trouble with some functionality in ExplorerPatcher gone altogether, my recommendation is to uninstall it, run “sfc /scannow” to restore the system files integrity, reboot, then reinstall ExplorerPatcher which will hopefully have everything fixed. Your settings for EP are kept when doing this, so it’s a non-destructive process.

I followed the steps you mention to uninstall EP, and, the sfc /scannow didn't report any errors, but still I get the problem of the en-US keyboard layout being added automatically (and getting selected automatically without my consent) upon every reboot. I already tried all known methods to solve (to no avail). This issue only goes away by deciding not to (re)install EP. So, as a temporary workaround, I have created a task in Task Scheduler that runs at any user logon. This task runs the command that has been described in this post. It works.

valinet · Nov 17, 2022

hdmi said:
I followed the steps you mention to uninstall EP, and, the sfc /scannow didn't report any errors, but still I get the problem of the en-US keyboard layout being added automatically (and getting selected automatically without my consent) upon every reboot. I already tried all known methods to solve (to no avail). This issue only goes away by deciding not to (re)install EP. So, as a temporary workaround, I have created a task in Task Scheduler that runs at any user logon. This task runs the command that has been described in this post. It works.

Yeah, it's not really an EP problem. The legacy Windows shell seems to have a bug where it randomly adds a keyboard layout corresponding to the system default language if you remove it from the list. It think that, because you installed the system in "en-US", for example, you must always want to use the "en-US" keyboard. As usual, Microsoft is not bothered, they are more interested in crippling other things as well. I don't know how to solve it, I don't even know what causes it. If StartAllBack has this fixed, the fix can be ported over, provided that it's identified. And then it has to be tested. Interested people can work on it. I personally do not hit this on my day to day use, since I have my system installed in English (US) and use that keyboard layout to type, and only occasionally switch to my native language, the very few times I have to type text in that language. In the mean time, yeah, a solution like the workaround provided should work.

On an unrelated note, latest pre-release (22621.819.52.2) should fix the famous bug where disable "Recommended" section in Windows 11 Start menu doesn't work when the DPI of the display is 120 (aka scaling is at 125%).

hdmi · Nov 17, 2022

valinet said:
, because you installed the system in "en-US"

No, I didn't. It's actually "nl-NL" (the LCID for that is &h413).

[MS-LCID]: Appendix A: Product Behavior

The information in this specification is applicable to the following Microsoft products or supplemental software. References to product versions

learn.microsoft.com

valinet · Nov 17, 2022

hdmi said:
No, I didn't. It's actually "nl-NL" (the LCID for that is &h413).

View attachment 45438

[MS-LCID]: Appendix A: Product Behavior

The information in this specification is applicable to the following Microsoft products or supplemental software. References to product versions

learn.microsoft.com

Fallback language is still "en-US", maybe it also checks that, idk. Whatever, this bug is long known I think, I wish we had a fix. I think it happened on Windows 10 as well at some point.

hdmi · Nov 17, 2022

valinet said:
Fallback language is still "en-US", maybe it also checks that, idk. Whatever, this bug is long known I think, I wish we had a fix. I think it happened on Windows 10 as well at some point.

Yea, AFAIK it dates back all the way to Win 7. lol