Solved ExplorerPatcher

The-Hive · Oct 14, 2021

Is there a way to put he Icons back in the centre from the left? I love this .dll, it gives me my old 3rd party clock back along with all the goodies I liked

dacrone · Oct 14, 2021

taskbarx - you can center icons and hide the start button. use autohotkey to create a new start button and pin it to your taskbar, it'll be centered too

swarfega · Oct 14, 2021

You can re-centre the icons on the task bar in the Settings app. Right click on taskbar and settings Click on the taskbar behaviours chevron.

Anixx · Oct 14, 2021

A commertial program StartAllBack also can switch to the Win10 interface but also allows the icons centered.

The-Hive · Oct 14, 2021

swarfega said:
You can re-centre the icons on the task bar in the Settings app. Right click on taskbar and settings Click on the taskbar behaviours chevron.

Didn't seem to work on mine, I will try it again

The-Hive · Oct 14, 2021

dacrone said:
taskbarx - you can center icons and hide the start button. use autohotkey to create a new start button and pin it to your taskbar, it'll be centered too

Thanks, I got it all set up good, I don't really want to install a fix to cure another fix

The-Hive · Oct 14, 2021

Anixx said:
A commertial program StartAllBack also can switch to the Win10 interface but also allows the icons centered.

Thanks Anixx. I want to sort ExplorerPatcher not try more programs as my start menu is replaced with a shell program

dacrone · Oct 14, 2021

The-Hive said:
Thanks, I got it all set up good, I don't really want to install a fix to cure another fix

taskbarx is a portable app you can just place and run btw.. just fyi

Stigg · Oct 14, 2021

The-Hive said:
Is there a way to put he Icons back in the centre from the left? I love this .dll, it gives me my old 3rd party clock back along with all the goodies I liked

Does it work good?
It appears to do a similar job to StartAllBack.

dacrone · Oct 15, 2021

Stigg said:
Does it work good?
It appears to do a similar job to StartAllBack.

start11 works best for taskbar replacement so far.. imo. easy to set up and requires very little user action. lets you do all the old stuff from windows 10 too.

Stigg · Dec 1, 2021

dacrone said:
start11 works best for taskbar replacement so far.. imo. easy to set up and requires very little user action. lets you do all the old stuff from windows 10 too.

I think you must mean StartAllBack works best for Taskbar replacement.
Start11 doesn't do that.

Stigg · Nov 7, 2022

Do you guys prefer ExplorerPatcher over StartAllBack?
I guess it's a bit of a silly question considering that this is an ExplorerPatcher thread.
But for those that have tried both, do you prefer it, apart from the fact that it's free?

JohnnyFire · Nov 7, 2022

Stigg said:
Do you guys prefer ExplorerPatcher over StartAllBack?
I guess it's a bit of a silly question considering that this is an ExplorerPatcher thread.
But for those that have tried both, do you prefer it, apart from the fact that it's free?

pesonally i test both and didnt keep my expectetions, explore patcher has bugs that crash explorer and sometimes at unistall keeps the settings and mess with os didnt fix that still and allstartback is nice buck the dark mode for run and control panel looks awful plus misses the most importand staff...

its nice to play with those apps, but i prefere a stable os without messing around

Stigg · Nov 7, 2022

JohnnyFire said:
pesonally i test both and didnt keep my expectetions, explore patcher has bugs that crash explorer and sometimes at unistall keeps the settings and mess with os didnt fix that still and allstartback is nice buck the dark mode for run and control panel looks awful plus misses the most importand staff...

its nice to play with those apps, but i prefere a stable os without messing around

I tried StartAllBack. I haven't tried ExplorerPatcher, but I can see that it does a similar thing.

I agree with you that they both mess with the OS too much.
It's probably better to stick with Windows 10 if you want all that functionality back.

JohnnyFire · Nov 7, 2022

Stigg said:
I tried StartAllBack. I haven't tried ExplorerPatcher, but I can that it does a similar thing.

I agree with you that they both mess with the OS too much.
It's probably better to stick with Windows 10 if you want all that functionality back.

indeed whats the point to mod something if you dont like it, just use the real thing and get things done!

hdmi · Nov 8, 2022

Stigg said:
I haven't tried

Stigg said:
mess with the OS

IownAmoneyPit · Nov 8, 2022

One great thing I discovered about explorer patcher is that live tiles that work in windows 10 still work with EP however you may have to find windows 10 versions of the app using Direct Download Links for Microsoft Store apps and disable automatic updates of your apps in the windows store. I have Clock Tile Pro working, The Photos app and I tested the weather app.

None of the other programs like Start 11, or Live tiles anywhere allow live tiles.

Stigg · Nov 8, 2022

hdmi said:

I don't have pigtails, but as I grow older, I find that following the Microsoft stupidity is just a waste of time when your existing operating system does everything you want.

hdmi · Nov 8, 2022

Stigg said:
I don't have pigtails, but as I grow older, I find that following the Microsoft stupidity is just a waste of time when your existing operating system does everything you want.

All I really want is that it fetches my slippers. I used to want it to cook a lasagna Bolognese, but that was before I picked up overclocking and nowadays my doc doesn't allow me to eat that kind of stuff anymore anyway.

valinet · Nov 8, 2022

JohnnyFire said:
indeed whats the point to mod something if you dont like it, just use the real thing and get things done!

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.