how do i bring back the old windows 7 file explorer back to windows 11?

thatwindowsuser · Nov 19, 2022

hello, i absoulty hate the new windows 11 file explore. im wondering how do i go about bringing the windows 7 file explore back to windows 11? i know its possible just dont know which files i need to replace. is there some sort of registry hack i can i do?

Dru2 · Nov 19, 2022

thatwindowsuser said:
im wondering how do i go about bringing the windows 7 file explore back to windows 11?

You can't "bring back" that which was never there. If you want "Windows 7" explorer, you can reinstall Windows 7

But seriously, I'm not aware of an app that can do that, but then I don't tweak my OS to look like a former OS.

Bree · Nov 19, 2022

thatwindowsuser said:
im wondering how do i go about bringing the windows 7 file explore back to windows 11?

Dru2 said:
...but then I don't tweak my OS to look like a former OS.

Neither do I, Windows seems to be much more stable if you don't mess with it.

But for those who do, Explorer Patcher is one of the 3rd-party tools often used.

GitHub - valinet/ExplorerPatcher: This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows

This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows - GitHub - valinet/ExplorerPatcher: This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows

github.com

Edwin · Nov 19, 2022

StartAllBack - Stable enough for me!

idgat · Nov 19, 2022

Someone once said somewhere in these forums that Windows 11 was the absolute most perfect operating system .... in which to install 3rd party software (i.e. to make up for its deficiencies).

If you're looking for a more customisable, user-friendly (Ess-aitch-one-tee, I hate that phrase) file management system, try the freeware xplorer2 Lite

xplorer² lite: free windows explorer replacement (file manager)

Edwin · Nov 19, 2022

idgat said:
xplorer2 Lite

Q-Dir is another good one.

idgat · Nov 19, 2022

Edwin said:
Q-Dir is another good one.

Yeh, plenty of options out there to make up for W11 idiosyncracies.

Berton · Nov 19, 2022

Let's go further back, how about File Manager from Windows 3.1 of the mid-90s? It works fine on Win10 and Win11.

Edwin · Nov 19, 2022

idgat said:
Yeh, plenty of options out there to make up for W11 idiosyncracies.

Windows is capable of amazing things, lately though, it seems MS doesn't want you doing those things!

idgat · Nov 19, 2022

Berton said:
Let's go further back, how about File Manager from Windows 3.1 of the mid-90s? It works fine on Win10 and Win11.

{Sniff} {Sniff} Stop it, I'm getting all nostalgic here {Sniff} {Sniff}

Stigg · Nov 19, 2022

You can always get the old File Manager from the Microsoft Store.

Windows File Manager - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Window File Manager reborn. Project is maintained on https://github.com/microsoft/winfile.

apps.microsoft.com

But seriously. There are plenty of good third party file managers available. You just need to choose one that you like.
I'm a long time Directory Opus user, but there are some good free options.

Berton · Nov 19, 2022

Stigg said:
You can always get the old File Manager from the Microsoft Store.

Windows File Manager - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Window File Manager reborn. Project is maintained on https://github.com/microsoft/winfile.

apps.microsoft.com

But seriously. There are plenty of good third party file managers available. You just need to choose one that you like.
I'm a long time Directory Opus user, but there are some good free options.

Right. I use Total Commander [paid for] on a couple of my Win10 and Win11 machines but there are good free ones like FreeCommander, MultiCommander and Q-Dir, easy to find some on www.majorgeeks.com to try to see what fits. Some features are better than File Explorer such as bulk rename in a folder.

Stigg · Nov 20, 2022

This a great little free, self-contained, portable file manager. You need to select Portable Mode, then all settings will be saved in a single XML file (config.xml).

I've used it in Windows before. But these days, I mainly add it to my boot media.
It's one of the very few tabbed and portable file managers that work in boot media. It even has bookmarks.

Explorer++ - A small and fast file manager for Windows

explorerplusplus.com

I turn off the Display Window at the bottom. That's that blue bar you see at the bottom.

There are also development builds happening regularly of late.
The current development build is v1.4.0.1954, dated November 07, 2022.

hdmi · Nov 20, 2022

Open-Shell 4.4.170 with the Classic Explorer Bar feature is what works for me, along with some additional registry tweaks like not fading the expand/collapse (chevron) signs in the nav pane, reduced line height in the nav pane, column headers always visible, restoring the classic file copy dialog panel, and restoring the old right-click (context) menu and ribbon of Windows 10. These registry tweaks can easily be found by doing an online search, but I'm lazy so mostly use Winaero Tweaker for this. ExplorerPatcher also has a few tweaks, and a lot of them are the same, but some of them are definitely not the same so that's another real bonus right there.

On a side note, I always love how every thread that pops up on here about subjects like this has at least one guy complaining about people wanting new Windows to look like old Windows. It's funny, and, I keep coming back to ElevenForums only because I fear I might die if not enough funny stuff happens.

PBWINLEVEN · Oct 9, 2023

Dru2 said:
You can't "bring back" that which was never there. If you want "Windows 7" explorer, you can reinstall Windows 7

But seriously, I'm not aware of an app that can do that, but then I don't tweak my OS to look like a former OS.

Perhaps you have better eyesight than some of us. All I see is a WHITE window with a few faint lines in it.

pietcorus2 · Oct 9, 2023

Still searching for a reliable contextmenu-backupper for Win11.
After a WinRAR-update my contextmenu is a mess , WinRAR is present everywhere in the right-click , no problems with the previous WinRAR ( 6.11 version ) , but this latest 6.24 is a disaster .................

Apriciate some help.................

Rollback_Jockey · Oct 9, 2023

pietcorus2 said:
Still searching for a reliable contextmenu-backupper for Win11.
After a WinRAR-update my contextmenu is a mess , WinRAR is present everywhere in the right-click , no problems with the previous WinRAR ( 6.11 version ) , but this latest 6.24 is a disaster .................

Apriciate some help.................

Run REGEDIT, click on the arrow next to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive to open it, scan down the list to find .RAR, click the arrow to open that key, look for ShellNew, right click it and select rename, add a minus at the end of the name, now do the same for .ZIP, bye bye to all the context menu entries.

Ghot · Oct 9, 2023

@thatwindowsuser
The best you can do on Win 10 or Win 11... with just some registry patches, would be this...

Brink · Oct 9, 2023

thatwindowsuser said:
hello, i absoulty hate the new windows 11 file explore. im wondering how do i go about bringing the windows 7 file explore back to windows 11? i know its possible just dont know which files i need to replace. is there some sort of registry hack i can i do?

Hello,

You might see if the option below to restore File Explorer with the ribbon that can be hidden may work for you.

Restore Classic File Explorer with Ribbon in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to restore the classic File Explorer with Ribbon for your account or all users in Windows 11. File Explorer in Windows 10 has a ribbon, tabs, and a title bar with color. The ribbon includes common tasks, such as copying and moving, creating new folders, emailing...

www.elevenforum.com

pietcorus2 · Oct 9, 2023

Strange , I can not find the WinRAR contextmenu-items in regedit , of the new ( latest) WinRAR.
while they are all present of the previous ( WinRAR 6.11 ) ........
Why should you use WinRAR in contextmenu for a .lnk-file ?? :wink:

how do i bring back the old windows 7 file explorer back to windows 11?

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